While speaking in a live broadcast which SaharaReporters monitored on Arise News, Benjamin mentioned that there was no justification for the continued detention of Kanu by the Nigerian government.
Benjamin Kalu, deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, has
appealed to President Bola Tinubu to release the detained leader of the
Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu.
While speaking in a live broadcast which SaharaReporters monitored on Arise News, Benjamin mentioned that there was no justification for the continued detention of Kanu by the Nigerian government.
He
said “Let me come to Nnamdi Kanu, my words to Mr President is that we
are not forcing you. We cannot coerce you as a commander-in-chief. We
cannot force you. You are our leader, you are our president. But we are
appealing to you. In the same sense of trying to heal the South East, in
this spirit of equity, in this spirit of fairness, other people like
him who were incarcerated have been released.
“Extend this equity to our brother. Let him come out, so that any
other person that carries arms on the streets of the South East, we will
be the one calling the soldiers, the military, and the police to shut
them down because they are just common criminals.
“The South East Development Commission is a healing balm from President Tinubu to the region.
“Since 1970, South Easterners were promised the three Rs,
Reconciliation, Reconstruction, and Rehabilitation. It has been in words
for over five decades, and no president has had the courage to take
action on it until now.
“President Bola Tinubu decided to be courageous and end the war that
has been raging in the hearts of the South Easterners by fulfilling the
promise of 54 years by bringing out a new agency. He did it without
making noise.
“Special problems demand special intervention, and it’s all about
strategy for anyone development-oriented. Former President Buhari, in
view of what was happening in the North East, brought an intervention
using the regional development agencies to carry out some intervention,
and the resultant effect of that is tremendous and unrecognisable.
“This is what is needed to carry out the intervention that the South Easterners have been longing for 54 years.”
“We are very grateful, and that’s why I’m calling on the youth in the
South East to say no to protest and yes to process. This is the time of
laying the foundation.”
Barrister Aloy Ejimakor, Special Counsel for the detained leader of
the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, had also noted that
President Tinubu lacked the moral authority to keep the IPOB leader in
detention over his Biafra Nation agitation.
Ejimakor had said there was no difference between Kanu’s Biafra
Nation agitation and Tinubu’s declaration in 1997 in an interview
published by ThisDay, where he said he did not believe in one Nigeria
and nothing was done to him.
ThisDay on April 13, 1997, published an interview granted by Tinubu
titled ‘I Don’t Believe In One Nigeria’, where he declared that he did
not believe in one Nigeria as championed by the late Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe.
Tinubu was interviewed by Ayo Arowolo, the current Chief of Staff (CoS) to the Chairman of Arise Group, Prince Nduka Obaigbena.
Ejimakor on Thursday in a post on his X account said having declared his disbelief in one Nigeria, Tinubu as Nigeria’s President should not continue to keep Kanu who also expressed similar sentiment in detention.
