Uma Ukpai slams Biafra agitators, backs Igbo presidency

The President of Uma Ukpai Evangelistic Association, Rev. Uma Ukpai, has condemned Biafra Republic agitators, saying they have shown “the level of their madness”.

The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) are spearheading the separation of the South East from Nigeria.

The groups have had several clashes with security forces that left some people dead and others injured.

But speaking to reporters in Uyo yesterday, Ukpai insisted that Biafra agitation was not in the interest of Nigeria.

According to him, any one agitating for Biafra at this point has shown the level of his or her madness.

“There will always be crazy people, even when people are seen to be normal. Whoever is agitating for Biafra has shown the level of his madness. But everybody is mad, the difference is the level of your madness,” the popular cleric said.

On the agitation for a president of Igbo extraction in 2023, he said a South Easterner deserves a chance to rule the country.

Ukpai also condemned those demanding the breakup of Nigeria urging them to stop.

He lamented poverty, greed, selfishness and lack of compassion in the country, saying no meaningful progress would be made until there was a change.

“As a nation until we love one another, we cannot notice one another, only when we love that which we have that we can develop. But we don’t care whether others eat or not. If we have no respect for one another, it also means we don’t care whether others exist or not,” the cleric said.

On the warning issued for the restructuring of the country to forestall a breakup by the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Pastor Enoch Adeboye, Ukpai said his co-clergy “is entitled to his opinion”.

According to him, Adeboye probably gave the warning because of what happened during the civil war.