The Governor of Enugu State, Peter Mbah, has urged President Bola Tinubu, to release the leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, as part of
national reconciliation and the healing process in the land.
He said he was making the appeal based on the healing process he promised during his inauguration.
Mbah spoke while briefing the State House Correspondents after a meeting with President Tinubu at the Presidential Villa.
He said the main purpose of his visit to the Villa was the issue of Kanu.
“We also of course, talked about the release of Nnamdi Kanu. You know, that the South East has made a collective demand to have Nnamdi Kanu released.
“And we basically identified with that and request. Mr. President, in his inaugural address promised the people that he’s going to engender national healing and he’s going to serve with compassion.
“So we’ve basically informed him that this would serve as a pointer to his administration’s extension of hands of fellowship to Ndi Igbo
“I came and frankly I brought to the President, the warm greetings and best wishes from the government and the people of Enugu state. But, above all, you may also know already that we made massive campaign promises to the people of Enugu. And we also have expressed humongous vision.
“We’ve taken a bold view of what the new group could achieve in the next four years, in terms of growing our economy from the current levels to $30 billion. And one of our core governance philosophy is to collaborate and to have partnership, and we have identified the Federal Government as our core partner.
“We have a number of dominant assets in Enugu which we believe by partnering with the federal government, we’re able to transform into productive assets. A lot of people do not know, but we have huge mineral resources in a new group. And these resources are sitting under our ground not being productive.
“So we believe with the partnership we’re trying to basically build with the Federal Government, we’re able to transform these assets into productive assets.
“Of course, you know that the growth level we have proposed is one that is going to be driven by private sector, and private sector wants the ease of doing business and one of the core indicators of the ease of doing business is security and infrastructure.
“So we also had that conversation with Mr. President. We have made a very strong announcement. We’ve banned sit at home on Mondays in Enugu. And obviously, what that means is that we will, of course, need to, you know, heighten our security, tackle the challenges that would flow from that, and, you know, essentially that’s what I have come to do.”
It would be recalled that Kanu was arrested in 2015 during the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari and was granted bail in April 2017.
However, the invasion of his home town in Afara-Ukwu, Abia State by Nigerian troops, forced him to flee the country in September of the same year.
Kanu was eventually re-arrested in Kenya in June 2021, about four years after his initial escape.
But in October 13, the Court of Appeal in Abuja ruled that Kanu’s extradition to Nigeria was an act of lawlessness stating that it was outside legal frameworks and violated his fundamental human rights.
The court also threw out the terrorism-related charges levied against him by the Nigerian government and ordered his release from the custody of the Department of State Security (DSS).
But the federal government contested the court judgement insisting that his discharge could cause insecurity in the Southeast, and he may also fail to attend subsequent legal proceedings if released.
However, former President Buhari’s administration went to the court and appealed the ruling with the Attorney-General of the Federation’s office.
At the Supreme Court, federal government got an order suspending the judgement’s execution, pending the hearing of the substantive appeal.
However, the Supreme Court is yet to pass its judgement on the matter.
