3rd July 2024, NewsOrient,
News

Barely a day after Southeast Governors openly resolved to take the issue of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu’s release to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the Senator representing Abia South, Enyinnaya Abaribe, has revealed that Kanu, the IPOB leader, has promised to abide by the conditions the Federal Government will give for his release.

Senator Abaribe led South East Senators to a meeting with the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Prince Lateef Fagbemi on Wednesday to demand Kanu’s release.

Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe said he had already met with the IPoB leader at the headquarters of the Department of State Services (DSS).

Abaribe, who spoke on behalf of his colleagues, said he was optimistic that the AGF would persuade the Federal Government to heed to the call for Kanu’s release.

According to him, the continued detention of the IPoB leader was responsible for the rising level of insecurity and agitations in the Southeast region.

Unless Kanu is released, he said, social and economic activities within the region would remain stagnant.

As NewsOrient reported earlier, Southeast Governors have resolved to approach President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to pray for release of the detained Leader of Indigenous People Of Biafra (IPOB), Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.

This is even as former President Olusegun Obasanjo paid a strategic visit to the Southeast Governors where release of Nnamdi Kanu was also discussed.

This new development gained public awareness on Tuesday, when South East Governors hosted former President Olusegun Obasanjo who paid them a solidarity visit on their new strategies on Southeast security and release of Nnamdi Kanu.

Obasanjo paid the Southeast Governors alongside a powerful delegation that included former Commonwealth Secretary General, Chief Emeka Anyaoku and Obi of Onitsha, Igwe Alfred Nnaemeka Achebe, amongst other influential leaders.

Announcing the outcome of the meeting, the Chairman of the South East Governors Forum and Governor of Imo State, Senator Hope Uzodinma, said: “The Forum resolved to visit Mr. President to discuss all pressing issues concerning the Southeast region.

“The Forum also deliberated and resolved to interface with the Federal Government to secure the release of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.”

The governors also deliberated on the reviewed report of the South East security and economic summit held in Owerri Imo state on the 28 September 2023 and agreed to implement the aspect of the report about security and economic integration of the Southeast region and affirmed its desire to put actionable plan on the key issues agreed.

The meeting which lasted over seven hours had all the governors in attendance.

The governors are Alex Otti of Abia, Hope Uzodimma of Imo, Charles Soludo of Anambra, Francis Nwifuru of Ebonyi State, and the host governor, Peter Mbah.

Recently, other leaders from within the Southeast and other regions in Nigeria have openly expressed the need to release Mazi Nnamdi Kanu from detention as a way of addressing insecurity in the Southeast region.

It would be recalled for example that recently, 50 members of the House of Representatives from different parts of Nigeria and political parties, known as Concerned Federal Lawmakers for Peace and Security in the Southeast, wrote to President Bola Tinubu to invoke Section 174 of the Constitution of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended) and Section 107(1) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015 for the release of the detained IPOB leader.

The lawmakers made this appeal in a three-page letter dated June 19, 2024, and addressed to the President.

They urged the President to direct the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Prince Lateef Fagbemi SAN, to invoke his powers of nolle prosequi under the provisions of Section 174(1) of the Constitution and Section 107(1) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act 2015, and cause the release of Kanu from detention and discontinue his trial.

Signatories to the plea include Hon Obi Aguocha (Abia), Hon Ikenga Ugochinyere (Imo), Hon. Aliyu Mustapha (Kaduna), Hon Midala Balami (Borno), Hon Afam Ogene (Anambra), Hon. Abiante Awaji-Inombek (Rivers), Hon Dominic Okafor (Anambra), Hon Etanabene Benedict (Delta), Hon. Shehu Dalhatu (Katsina), Hon Chinedu Emeka Martins (Imo), Hon. Matthew Nwogu (Imo), Hon. Muhammed Buba Jagere (Yobe), Hon Peter Aniekwe (Anambra), Hon Koki Sagir (Kano), Hon Amobi Oga (Abia), Hon Gwacham Chinwe (Anambra), Hon Uchenna Okonkwo (Anambra), Hon. Abdulmaleek Danga (Kogi), Hon. Osi Nkemkama (Ebonyi), and others.

A similar plea to the President was also made by the apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo.

Another leader that have recently made such a plea is the Presidential Candidate of the Labour Party, LP, in the 2023 Election, Peter Obi.

Obi, a former Anambra State Governor, did not limit his plea to the release of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu alone, he called for the release of other detainees with similar cases.

~ NewsOrient