Edwin Clark tells Ipob to forget about dragging the south-south into its planned Biafra republic

IJAW elder statesman and leader of the Pan Niger Delta Forum (Pandef) Chief Edwin Clark has dismissed plans by the Indigenous People of Biafra (Ipob) to include the south-south geo-political zone in its planned breakaway republic.

Ipob, which has been planning to recreate the defunct republic of Biafra that existed briefly between July 1967 and January 1970 during the Nigerian civil war, has sight to rope the south-south into its project. All the maps of Biafra that Ipob has produced so far have included the whole of the former old Eastern Region, which includes modern day Rivers, Bayelsa, Edo, Delta, Akwa Ibom and Cross River states.

Responding to this, Chief Clark, said Ipob is very unrealistic in its quest to get the south-south and southeast geo-political zones out of Nigeria. He maintained, however, that Ipob leader Nnamdi Kanu is fighting a good fight, adding that the people of the southeast are being neglected in Nigeria.

Chief Clark added: “How can Delta be part of Biafra? In what way? Is Biafra older or bigger than Delta? How can Rivers State or Akwa Ibom become part of Biafra? They are dreaming for still thinking about the Eastern Region of those days.”

According to Chief Clark, the southeast only has five states, whereas other regions in the country have six and seven respectively. He added that this is unfair and is the kind of injustice Ipob should be fighting against.

Chief Clark said: “For every appointment that is being made in this country, the Igbo are short-changed. If universities are being distributed per state, they will have five, others will have six while the north-west will have seven.

"This is despite the Igbo forming the third leg when this country was created. So, they have a good complaint but are going about it wrongly.”