Joe Igbokwe,an All Progressives Congress chieftain and a Special Adviser to the Lagos State Governor, on Drainage and Water Resources, said that banditry is different from those agitating for secession.
The special adviser noted that the federal government will not go after bandits and kidnappers just like they go against secessionist groups like IPOB (Indigenous people of Biafra) and their leader (Nnamdi Kanu).
He said;
“That is the argument of the weak human beings, you want to compare Sambisa Forest to the South-East that is smaller than Kogi State. Bandits come to kidnap for money, you pay them and they release you, that is their business, those people may not even be Nigerians. It is not war, it is not secession. In fact, in the Supreme Court of Nigeria when the issue of secession came up, the Supreme Court will not entertain it; we don’t discuss it.
“You don’t talk about it, tribes must die for you to build a nation? It is unheard of, we have made mistakes in the past, we don’t want to make them again. It is a delicate, complicated matter. Almost 400 young men lost their lives in two months.”