By Kayode Lawal Senators from the Southeast Region of Nigeria on Wednesday in Abuja pleaded passionately with President Bola Tinubu ...
By Kayode Lawal
Senators from the Southeast Region of Nigeria on Wednesday
in Abuja pleaded passionately with President Bola Tinubu to order the release
of the detained Biafran Nation agitator, Nnamdi Kanu.
The Senators numbering 15 and led by a former Abia State
Deputy Governor, Enyinnaya Abaribe claimed that unless Kanu is released, the
social and economic activities in the Southeast region will continue to be
stagnant.
The Senators held a closed-door meeting with the Attorney
General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Prince Lateef Fagbem, SAN,
where the latter begged Tinubu to release Kanu.
Addressing Judiciary Correspondents immediately after the
closed-door meeting, Abaribe who spoke on behalf of his colleagues lamented
that the economy and social life in the Southeast had suffered enough due to
the continued incarceration of the Biafra nation agitator.
Abaribe noted with grave concern that the peaceful demand of
the detained IPOB leader had been hijacked by hoodlums and hardened criminals
leading to wanton killings of innocent people, including security operatives.
The former Abia State Deputy Governor told newsmen that he
had already met with Kanu at the headquarters of the Department of State
Services, DSS, in Abuja on Monday and that Kanu had agreed to abide by any conditional
release.
Senator Abaribe expressed optimism that once Kanu is
released, the tension and acrimonies engulfing the Southeast region since 2021
when he was clamped into DSS custody would become an event of the past.
The Senators therefore pleaded with the AGF to convey their
message to President Tinubu and for the AGF to use his position to terminate
all charges brought against the IPOB leader by the federal government.
Besides the Senators, Abaribe said that virtually all
political leaders, religious leaders and stakeholders have unanimously agreed
that Kanu be released for peace to bounce back to the region.
It would be recalled that Kanu was re-arrested in Kenya in
2021 by the Federal Government and brought to the country for trial on terrorism
charges.
Although he pleaded not guilty to the charges, Justice Binta
Nyako of the Federal High Court in Abuja declined to admit him to bail on the
ground that he jumped the earlier one in which Senator Abaribe was his surety.
Kanu has since been in the custody of the DSS on the order
of the Federal High Court, Abuja.
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