President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, at the weekend appealed to Ndigbo to maintain peace and guide youths to shun armed struggle against the Federal Government.

Akpabio made the appeal on May 2, 2026, at the funeral of former Administrative Secretary of the defunct Oil Mineral Producing Area Development Commission, Sir Albert Ikechukwu Nnamani, in Ikem, Enugu State.

“For Ndigbo, I want to plead with you to continue to maintain the peace and watch the youth of today. They don’t understand politics. They don’t understand development. You can only have development in an area of peace,” Akpabio said.

He warned that attempts to assert independence through armed struggle would fail. “A situation whereby you try to wrestle power and try to assert independence through armed struggle from the Federal Government will fail. The state power will always overwhelm you,” he said.

Akpabio said the National Assembly is ready to amend laws to create an additional state for the South East. “We are prepared as a parliament, to make the right laws, to tinker with the Act, to dot the i’s and cross the t’s in order for Ndigbo to have, at least, an additional state. So that they will also be equal to the other zones of the country,” he said.

He noted that the government of Pres. Bola Ahmed Tinubu is eager to correct past wrongs. “That is why even in terms of appointment, he has done his best to ensure that Ndigbo is not marginalised. But everything you want should be negotiated,” Akpabio said.

“I’m saying this to underscore the fact that through peaceful means and negotiation, we shall get our right of place in Nigeria. I want this to happen in your lifetime. May we not lose our youth because of wrong politics and wrong advice,” he added.

Akpabio decried the economic impact of sit-at-home orders in the South East. “I am not happy that the economy of Onitsha and Nigeria is affected by the so-called sit at home. It has affected your economy so badly,” he said.

He recalled the post-civil war experience of Ndigbo. “Ndigbo are known for nothing but enterprise. When we came out from the war, all your accounts were frozen. If you have two million pounds, they gave you three pounds,” he said.

Referencing a 2010 Silverbird award, Akpabio questioned the implementation of post-war policies. “How come the so-called three Rs, Reconciliation, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction, that Reconstruction happened in other areas of the country where the war was not fought. But in the area of the South-South and South East where Biafra war was fought, there was no reconstruction. They only tried reconciliation and rehabilitation,” he said.

He said past leaders were uncomfortable with his remarks at that event. “It was time for Nigeria to do justice and prayed that justice shall be done to Ndigbo in our lifetime,” Akpabio said.

He paid tribute to the late Nnamani, noting that as Administrative Secretary of OMPADEC, he discharged his duty with dignity and set the tone for the development of the Niger Delta region.

“Before his ascension into that position, many used to say that so much is being promised the people of the Niger Delta and that all the promises were in the pipeline. After a while, our people started breaking the pipelines in order to bring out the Federal Government promises. But those things are now things of the past,” Akpabio said.