From Godwin Tsa Abuja
Senators from the Southeast region of Nigeria on Wednesday made a passionate appeal to President Bola Tinubu to order the release of the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu.
The Senators led by a former Abia state deputy Governor, Senator Eyinanya Abaribe and Senator Victor Ume, believe that unless Kanu is released, the social and economic activities in the Southeast region will continue to be stagnant.
The Senators who held a closed-door meeting with the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Prince Lateef Fagbemi (SAN) delivered a letter urging Tinubu to release the IPOB leader.
Speaking to journalists immediately after the closed-door meeting, Abaribe who spoke on behalf of his colleagues said he was optimistic that the AGF would persuade the Federal Government to heed the call for Kanu’s release.
He maintained that the continued detention of the IPOB leader was responsible for the rising level of insecurity and agitations in the South East region.
Read also: S’East govs to meet Tinubu over Kanu’s release
According to him, social and economic activities within the region would remain stagnant unless Kanu is released.
Abaribe disclosed that he had already met with Kanu at the headquarters of the Department of State Services, DSS.
He said the embattled IPOB leader agreed to abide by any condition the FG would give for his release.
The Senator lamented that the economy and social life in the Southeast had suffered enough due to the continued incarceration of the Biafra Nation Agitator.
The meeting between the lawmakers and the AGF came barely after all the Governors from the Southeast region resolved to approach President Bola Tinubu to beg for Kanu’s freedom.
Earlier, about 50 members of the House of Representatives from various parts of the country, urged President Tinubu to free the detained IPOB leader.
The representatives, who identified themselves as “Concerned Federal Lawmakers for Peace and Security in the South East”, prayed President Tinubu to direct the AGF to invoke Section 174 of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, to terminate the terrorism-related charge that is pending against Kanu before the Abuja Division of the Federal High Court.
Kanu was first arrested in Lagos on October 14, 2015, upon his return to the country from the United Kingdom, UK.
Trial Justice Binta Nyako had on April 25, 2017, granted him bail on health grounds after he had spent about 18 months in detention.
Upon the perfection of the bail conditions, he was on April 28, 2017, released from the Kuje prison.
However, midway into the trial, the IPOB leader escaped from the country after soldiers invaded his country home at Afara Ukwu Ibeku in Umuahia, Abia State, an operation that led to the death of some of his followers.
Meanwhile, Kanu was later re-arrested in Kenya on June 19, 2021, and extraordinarily renditioned back to the country by security agents on June 27, 2021.
Following the development, the trial court, on June 29, 2021, remanded him in the custody of DSS, where he remains to date.
