The Movement for the Actualisation of a Sovereign State of Biafra has said that the elite in Igbo land who did not want the South-East region to leave Nigeria were infinitesimal in number.

MASSOB’s Director of Information, Samuel Edeson, who said the elite in Igbo land represented only one per cent of the population in the region, added that 99 per cent of Ndigbo wanted to leave the country.

Edeson was reacting to Umahi’s claim on Arise Television that the elite in the region was not interested in the ongoing secessionist agitation by IPOB and MASSOB and that a counter-secessionist group might rise if the killings by IPOB continued.

He said, “They (elite) will not like to leave Nigeria because they are benefitting from the suffering of the masses. How do you expect a man who used to get maybe N10m or N20m from the government every month to support our demand for Biafra? How do you expect a contractor who goes to Abuja to get contracts support to leave Nigeria?

“What I want you to know is that 99 per cent of Ndigbo want to leave Nigeria. So, he (Umahi) is just saying this because he wants to please his masters, his cabal that controls Aso Rock because of his political ambition, come 2023. He can say anything in order to please his masters.”

On a possible emergence of a counter-secessionist group, the MASSOB spokesman said, “Dave Umahi and some South-East governors (I mean some, not all of them), have arranged and organised some thugs which they want to use as opponents to Biafran agitators or IPOB. We are not surprised. Whenever you have an original, there is always a counterfeit.

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“Those who will come to protest against IPOB or against Biafran agitators are paid agents to destabilise the Biafraland and the Igbo land in particular.

“Umahi cannot stop it (Biafra); he is only the governor of Ebonyi State and not the governor of Igboland. That he is given the power of governor does not give him the power to control other things, and as a matter of fact, he can only control his state, if possible.”

Igbo not leaving Nigeria, want restructuring, Ohanaeze insists

Meanwhile, Ohanaeze Ndigbo has said that the people of the South-East were not interested in leaving Nigeria, but want restructuring.

Responding to Umahi’s claim that the elite were not interested in leaving Nigeria, Ohanaeze’s National Publicity Secretary, Chief Alex Ogbonnia, said, “The choice of words is different from our own position. Igbo held several meetings and agreed on restructuring, so Igbos favour restructuring

Igbos did not want secession or what you called Biafra. We looked at Igbo adventurism and lifestyle. Igbo adventurism and entrepreneurship cannot be contained within Biafra or what you called Biafra.