By Ogochukwu Anioke, Abakaliki

The Governor of Ebonyi State, David Umahi, yesterday said the attacks on security agencies in the Southeast were being carried out by people of the region not outsiders.

He said the people of the region by so doing were waging war with themselves even as he lamented that the leaders have remained silent and in pretense about the situation.

Umahi spoke yesterday during the grand finale of the 7-day prayer and fasting, organised by his administration to seek God’s intervention over the security challenge in the state and the entire country.

The event was held at the Christian Ecumenical Centre, Abakaliki, the state capital.

The governor urged leaders of the region to rise up and work with the government to tackle the security challenges as no reasonable person should fold his hands and allow the situation to continue.

He also noted that the policemen being killed in the ongoing attacks in the region were from the Southeast, insisting that there was need for Ndigbo to work on themselves.

“Why are we killing security agencies? Why are we burning police stations? And we said it is being perpetrated from outside. It’s not true. Our people are the people burning the police stations. They are the people killing the security agents, snatching their guns, doing armed robbery and cultism.

“There is no reasonable person that will allow what is developing in Igbo land to continue. The genuine agitation, minus secession, started by a group of people but it has been hijacked. And if we do not know, we need to know. Most of these people that they are killing when they attack police stations are from the Southeast.

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“We have got to work on ourselves. It is time for the Igbos to rise up. We are the only region that is at war with ourselves, yet, we pretend. It is no longer the agitation. Are we fairly treated? There is no region that is fairly treated; our own may be the worst, but can our leaders be allowed to discuss this and take it up with the centre, he asked.

Umahi, who is also the Chairman of South-East Governors’ Forum, urged the Federal Government to seek foreign assistance to tackle the worsening security challenges in the country especially from other African countries.

According to him, no nation ever allowed what was happening to Nigeria to happen to her, unchecked.

“I see videos of Boko Haram ravaging states in the North, unchecked; where are our air fighting powers? We must not be ashamed to borrow fighter jets from other African countries,” he said.

The governor disclosed that some suspected herdsmen threatened to attack Ebonyi people again, but vowed that nobody would be allowed to kill any Ebonyian again, under his watch.

“No herdsman in the entire Southeast will make an attempt to kill anybody again. Every herdsman coming to the Southeast must conform to the culture of the people. Our people everywhere, in South-south, South-west and in the North must conform to the culture of the people.

“Some herdsmen threatened that they will come and do this and do that; but I said that the last killing is the last time that an Ebonyian will be killed. This madness in this country must come to a stop.”