Leave Benue Out Of Your Biafra, Yar’adua’s Minister Warns Nnamdi Kanu

A former minister of education under the late  has warned the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Nnamdi Kanu against the inclusion of Benue state in the map of the supposed Biafra Republic.

Recall that Kanu had claimed that he rejected Biafra because the federal government failed to add Benue and Rivers to his territory.

But Agada, who is Board Chairman, Civil Service Commission, Benue State, said that Idoma people in particular and Benue state in general, had nothing in common with the Biafra agitations.

Agada said that before the civil war, there was nothing like Biafra, adding that no part of Benue or Idoma land was captured by the Igbo soldiers even during the war.

He said, “when the Nigeria soldiers came to Idoma land in 1967, they were stationed at Saint Joseph Primary school Orokam, my home town in Ogbadibo local government area, which is close to the boundary between the then northern region and Eastern region.

“So during crisis, Nigeria troops started pushing up the Igbos in Obolo-afor and Nsukka in the eastern region. Nowhere was captured by eastern troops in Benue which is in the northern region.

“No place was ceded to Igbos at the time, so why should the IPOB mislead the people with the map they are now flaunting claiming Idoma land and Benue is part of them?

“Those of us who stayed in Orokam where the war started, did not feel the impact of Igbo soldiers moving to Idoma areas or heard that Igbo troops captured any part of Idoma communities where IPOB is today laying claim to be part of their territory.

”Until the war ended in 1970, there was no claim that our kingdom then was captured by the then secessionists. The only thing we heard was that B26 airplanes came to drop bomb in Otukpo which was later captured and destroyed by the Nigeria soldiers.

“So IPOB should keep Benue and Idoma region out of their agenda, we have never been part of them in anyway.”

Agada, therefore, cautioned IPOB agitators to leave Benue state out of their Biafra, adding that “they should not coax people who do not share in their ideology and belief.”