An elder and former governor of Anambra State, Chief
Chukwuemeka Ezeife, has expressed disappointment over the position of the
President, Muhammadu Buhari, that the leader of the proscribed Indigenous
People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu, will not be released from detention.
Kanu was arrested last year in Kenya and brought back to
Nigeria before he was charged with offences bordering on treasonable felony and
terrorism.
President Buhari had told Igbo elders led by the First
Republic parliamentarian and Minister of Aviation, Mbazulike Amaechi, who
visited him at the State House, Abuja, that though their request for Kanu’s
release was heavy, he (Buhari) would consider it.
The President was, however, categorical in an interview with
Channels Television when he said he would not release Kanu and that the IPOB leader
should defend himself in court.
Speaking in an interview with PUNCH on Buhari’s latest stand
on the matter, Ezeife said he and his friends were bound to be disappointed,
saying the President, by his recent position, rubbished all that happened
during the Igbo elders’ visit to the State House in Abuja.
The former governor said, “There is nothing we can do. After
the meeting, the people who are familiar with him said he responded to us
truthfully and that he took our case very seriously and that his answer gives
hope.
“We went away with that, that there is hope. But for him now
to, in public, rubbish all that happened, I am bound to be disappointed and so
would be my friends who were there.”
On the way forward, he urged the President to work out an
agreement with all groups involved in the current agitation for
self-determination with a view to establishing a political arrangement that
would satisfy Nigerians.
“One thing we can still do is this, Nnamdi is detained,
Igboho was put in a crisis position, the South attacked and some people were
killed, so many other complaints as well. The Ijaw people are complaining, the
Middle Belt has declared their non-compliance anymore and South-South has been
in that shape.
“I think what the
President should do is to try to solve all these problems with one committee.
If he can assemble maybe five people per zone and let them look at all the
reports, including 2014, all the constitutions we have had, the 1963
Constitution and all that, and work out an agreement with all the groups for a
Nigeria with political rearrangement that would satisfy other people.
“I don’t want to just say I am very disappointed because I
am very much interested in Nigeria surviving. So, I suggest this caucus of
knowledgeable people who can work out a new arrangement politically for
Nigeria. The political solution is the only one that can solve the problem.
Buhari’ll not renege
on promise, says Amaechi
However, in a separate interview with Amaechi, the leader of
the Igbo elders’ delegation to Aso Rock, he expressed optimism that the
President would not renege on his promise to consider a political solution to
Kanu’s matter.
Amaechi said, “Kanu’s situation can be solved either
politically or even legally. It can be solved legally by the Attorney General.
When I met the President, he told me he would consider my request on Nnamdi
Kanu.
“There are many ways to kill a rat. So, I have no reason to
doubt the President. People need to trust him because he is not the type of
President who talks without knowing what he is saying. He is a highly
principled man.
“I don’t think the President has reneged on what he told me.
He has so far not. All I know is that discussions are going on. I can’t tell
you more than that. We are in contact and I have trust in the President’s
words.”
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