The Bishop of Anglican Church of Kaduna Diocese, Rt Reverend Timothy Yahaya has advised the Federal Government to hold talks with members of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) as part of efforts to quell agitations by the group.
He blamed the agitations on the marginalisation and segregation of the South East people by the present administration of President Muhammadu Buhari and asked that they should be brought to a discussion table for the government to listen to their grievances and possibly resolve them for the interest of peace and stability of the country.
While stating that IPOB has genuine reasons to agitate due to the politics of imbalance against the southeast, the cleric, however, noted that the situation must be handled with caution in order not to throw the country into crisis.
On the rising insecurity in the country, the Bishop also expressed concern that the unfortunate increase in the attacks, with increasing targets at schools in remote communities in the North West and North East geographical zones, will likely pose a major setback in the development of education and future of young people who might be forced to drop out of school.
He, therefore, called for the full implementation of the safe school initiative that was introduced in 2014 to safeguard the schools and students, while also asking the National Assembly to urgently investigate the utilisation of funds meant for the initiative.
