Governor David Umahi of Ebonyi State on Monday said videos making the round on social media purporting that members of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) were responsible for burning of houses belonging to herdsmen were not the handiwork of the separatist movement.
According to Umahi, communities, rather IPOB were responsible for the acts.
The governor who also disclosed that South-East governors had earlier banned open grazing and movement of cows on foot in the zone, stated this in Abakaliki on Monday during the inauguration of the All Progressives Congress (APC) membership registration committee.
While warning against politicization of security matters, the governor called on leaders of the South-East geopolitical zone to create a framework that will secure the lives and properties of the people.
Umahi, who is the Chairman of the Southeast Governors’ Forum said: “The governors of the Southeast had banned not only open grazing, but we have also banned the movement of cows by foot into the Southeast,
“In each of the five states of the Southeast, we are managing ourselves very well. We have also stopped the movement of cows across communities.
“What we discussed in the Southeast with the herdsmen, with the farmers is the method that has been in place for a long time before now.
“What our people must know is that security is not political, what is demanded of the leaders is to put up programmes that favour the people and foster national unity.
“There is a new dimension that is taking place in the Southeast which is very dangerous. It is when the communities use the name of IPOB, the video and upload it to the social media and say it is IPOB that is burning the houses of herdsmen.
“It is not IPOB, it is the communities that are doing this and this is very dangerous for the Igbo man. I am talking to us as leaders.”