By MAGNUS EZE, Enugu

President Muhammadu Buhari, Thursday morning, promised the people of South East tougher times following the self-determination campaign in the region.

The region is already under siege following heavy joint-security operations going on there with the attendant killings and impediments to socio-economic activities.

The President in a rare interview on Arise TV’s breakfast programme said the Biafra agitators especially the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) did not know what they were plunging their people into.

Buhari said that the Igbo were scattered everywhere in Nigeria and should not be making trouble.

He pointed out that he took particular interest in statements credited to South South Elders and youths that the South East was landlocked, stressing that this time around, they would not allow them any access to the outside world by sea.

On inclusion of people from the South East in the national security hierarchy, the president said that they have to grow through the ranks, noting that “you don’t force somebody to join, you have to join and pass through the rigmarole” of getting to the top.

Also, in other areas of appointments including the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), the president urged the people of the southeast to join the system and grow through the ranks.

He said: “The elderly people of the South South said that this time around, the South East will not have access to the sea. I am sure you will understand what they mean. Again the youths made the same statement. So, that IPOB is just like a dot in a cycle, if they must secede, you must have access to where you are. And the way they are spread all over the country, having businesses, having property, I think that IPOB doesn’t know what they are talking about.

“In any case, we said we will talk to them in the language they will understand. We will organise the police and the army to pursue them, that’s what we can do and we will do it.” (Text, excluding headline, courtesy Daily Sun)

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