Deputy Speaker: Discussions underway for Kanu’s release
According to The DWORLDGIST, the leader of the separatist Indigenous People of Biafra, Mr Nnamdi Kanu, has been in the custody of the Department of State Services since 2021 after he was arrested in Kenya and brought back to Nigeria.
The Federal Government has charged him with terrorism and the Supreme Court approved his trial on December 15.
He got into trouble in 2015 when the Federal Government detained him and four others on 11 counts of terrorism, treasonable felony, running an illegal society, publishing defamatory material, possessing firearms unlawfully and importing goods improperly, among others.
He escaped from Nigeria in September 2017, a few months after he was released on bail for health reasons, when the military raided his family’s house in Afara-Ukwu, near Umuahia, Abia State.
ALSO READ: Supreme Court grants approval for the terrorism trial of Nnamdi Kanu
He remained a fugitive until 2021 when he was captured in Kenya and extradited to Nigeria.
The Ohanaeze Indigbo and others have urged a political resolution to the matter.
The Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Benjamin Kalu, said that they were negotiating to free Kanu.
He spoke online on the “South East political Roundtable,” a current affairs radio show on FLO FM in Umuahia on Tuesday. His Chief Press Secretary, Levinus Nwabughiogu, released a statement on Tuesday, quoting Kalu as telling South-East youths to stop obeying the sit-at-home order of IPOB, saying that it was driving away many investors from the region.
Kalu also talked about the benefits of the newly launched Peace In South-East Project in the Bende Local Government Area of Abia State. He asked those who had weapons to drop them and join the non-violent method that the initiative was proposing to end the security problems and other grievances of the people.
He said, “We can’t reveal all our plans and programmes on social media. He (Kanu) is my brother. Is he part of what we are trying to do? Yes! It’s one of our goals to make sure he’s released. Who wants their brother to be in prison?
“We are working behind the scenes. There’s a comprehensive plan. It’s not by violence, you can’t force the government through violence. It has never worked and won’t work. Let’s be smarter. The wisdom is in peace. Let’s stop the violence.
“If it’s chaotic, it won’t work. Let’s calm down. Let him see that you’ve acknowledged he didn’t cause his imprisonment and that he hasn’t done anything to the South-East. We should back him and his government and not attack him. I’m firmly against the voice of violence, preaching peace.
That’s what I’m here for, this voice of peace will reach the Villa and he will come out. Mr President was pleased with what happened in Bende. That the whole country can come together and support this project.”
He asked for an end to the Monday sit-at-home that IPOB was demanding.
He said, “Our strength does not lie in how many guns we have, in how many people we scare not to come out on Monday. That is not the display of the strength of an Igbo man.
Igbo men are not idle people who like staying at home from Saturday to Sunday to Monday and go to work only on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.
That is not us; we are hard-working, we are rebuilders, we are never down and when we are down, we find a way to get up raise our shoulders and rebuild again. That is my call to our people.”
The Deputy Speaker said that President Bola Tinubu was not opposed to the South-East.
“Mr President gave the Ministry of Works to an Igbo son that proved himself in Ebonyi and he said, come and build what you did in Ebonyi in the whole Nigeria starting from the five states of the South-East and the only way we pay