Those causing mayhem in South-East are not foreigners – Umahi

The Governor of Ebonyi State, David Umahi, has said those causing mayhem in the South-East region are not foreigners but indigenes of the region who should be protecting the interest of the Igbos.

Umahi who was a guest on a Channels Television programme, Sunrise Daily on Tuesday, called on Nigerians to stop calling those responsible for the rising security challenges in the South-East unknown gunmen as they are young men and women from the region.

“Let our people come out to speak out that the unknown gunmen are not really unknown gunmen, they are our young men and women who will defend our land tomorrow; they should stop giving themselves to be killed.”

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According to the Governor, a majority of the “youths do not even know the cause they are fighting for. People are being brainwashed – they don’t even know what they are agitating for.

“There are people who go to talismen to get all kinds of juju (charms) that no gun can kill them and yet, guns are killing them, then you have the hard drugs; these are the three factors destroying our land,” he stated.

Umahi also gave kudos to security agencies especially in his state, saying they have been displaying a high level of responsibility in their conduct in the face of provocation and attacks on government facilities.

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“Let our people stop confronting the security agencies. Without burning properties of the government, there will be no need for the deployment of security operatives and when they are deployed, you cannot tell them how to do the job when they are confronted with death.

“A lot of them have lost their lives; they have families. We have to also know that the lives of the security operatives are the lives of our brothers and sisters, we are killing ourselves and it should stop,” he added.