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From Okey Sampson, Umuahia
One week after the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, announced the arrest and arraignment of IPOB leader, his community, Afara Ukwu, has said it would send a delegation to the Federal Government to dialogue on his release.
President General of the community, Ikechukwu Ndubueze, who made this known in Umuahia, said though the people of Afara Ukwu were sad over the development, it would opt for dialogue.
“There is no way the community will feel well or okay over the arrest of Kanu. In any case, he is our son. Afara Ukwu is a peaceful place that has co-habited peacefully with heads of various government agencies in the state.
“Take for instance, from Kanu’s house to the official residence of the Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIG) Zone 9, is about three poles.
“The house of Commissioner of Police of Abia command is about three poles as well from his house. The quarters of the Controller of Immigration in Abia is about five poles; the one of Prisons, is about five poles as well and the Abia Government House is about 10 poles. Even the Federal High Court Judge, the quarters is about four poles to Kanu’s house and all of them can attest to how peaceful our community is,” he said.
Ndubueze said the community would be meeting this weekend to discuss modalities for the dialogue, stressing that it is where that fails they would be looking at other lawful means to get their son out from detention.
“As at now, inasmuch as I may not know what will be the outcome of the meeting, I know the community would like to use peaceful means to look for solution to everything that is happening. I believe the community will go for peaceful means because they have been a peaceful people all along and they will not change now,” he said.
The president general did not, however, rule out the idea of the community going to court if all avenues of dialogue were exhausted.
“There are some other means which I believe the community can use, like sending delegations to talk with government one on one and all that. The most important thing is that you will go to court when you have exhausted all other peaceful means, you can then resort to court.
“It is when all of these fail that we can now think of heading to court. For now, no decision has been taken until we meet.”
Despite whatever the Federal Government is saying or anybody may think, Ndubueze does not believe that Kanu has done anything wrong.
“Come to think of how the Igbo are being treated, how they are being marginalised, you will agree with me that Kanu is making a point. If he is not making a point, he would not have had followers.”
While advising the Federal Government to look for a way to dialogue with the various agitation groups in the country, the president general insisted Afara Ukwu community would never abandon its son at this point in time.
“What the Federal Government should do is to get all the agitating groups together, because it is not only Kanu and his group, and talk over some of these things. Now, there is no peace all over Nigeria, banditry, kidnapping and the menace of the Fulani herdsmen, people need to sit down and discuss,” he said.
