ONDO state governor, Rotimi Akeredolu has dismissed criticism against President Muhammadu Buhari’s apparent silence on the crisis arising from the agitation by the banned Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) while highlighting problems in other countries in his statement to the ongoing United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).
The governor who is part of the president’s delegation to the annual event, told State House correspondents in New York on Wednesday that the president did not want to escalate the crisis to the level of the world body.
He maintained that the IPOB issue was a local issue that could be contained by local means even though he acknowledged that Buhari highlighted other daunting problems facing Nigeria such as the Boko Haram insurgency, corruption and repatriation of stolen assets.
He said: “IPOB agitation is not something you escalate to the level of the United Nations for now. It’s something that you can contain. It something that you can contain within what I will call our territorial jurisdiction.
“Why escalate it to the United Nations? That means, it’s like us wanting to bring what…I mean, they (United Nations) know of it. It’s not that they don’t know of it but it’s not an issue for now and it will never be an issue in Nigeria for me as a person.
“But when you talk about crises, a number of security concerns in Nigeria, what is happening from Chad and its effect on Nigeria and other neighbouring countries, the president mentioned it in his speech.
“The president also mentioned about Boko Haram and the assistance we have received. He did say something about countries that have assisted us. He mentioned their names and thanked them.
“So, it’s not that our security issues were not addressed or other issues were not addressed like security, corruption that is more tied to our funds that are outside.
“So, all those things have something to do with the country. If you are retrieving monies from all these western world, it has something to do with the country.”
Akeredolu praised as wonderful, the statement delivered by the president to the august body, saying that the highlight was Buhari’
