The self-declared leader of the outlawed Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu, is being negotiated for release by Governor Peter Mbah of Enugu State and President Bola Tinubu.
The release of Kanu would be consistent with the President’s plan for national healing, as he stated on May 29, according to Mbah, who met privately with Tinubu on Thursday at the Aso Rock Villa in Abuja.
According to reports, Kanu was apprehended on Kenyan soil and extradited to Nigeria, where he was charged with seven counts of terrorism, exactly two years ago.
Later, in November 2021, the IPOB leader was re-arrested on a new 15-count charge.
Mbah claimed to have discussed the potential release of the secessionist activist at the villa after a number of recent favourable court rulings regarding his prosecution.
The new governor claimed that Tinubu would release Kanu as a gesture of friendship to the region of the South-East where the IPOB leader is from.
He hoped the request would receive favourable consideration from the president.
Naturally, we also spoke about Nnamdi Kanu’s release.
“You are aware that Nnamdi Kanu’s release has been demanded by the South East as a whole. And we basically agreed with that and made a request to the President, who in his inaugural address promised the people he would promote national healing and act with compassion.
We’ve basically told him that this will serve as a sign that his administration is reaching out to the community, Mbah said.
He also revealed that he asked the federal government for help in exploring the rich mineral resources in Enugu State for the benefit of the local populace.
Mbah claimed that Enugu has a wealth of untapped resources that can be discovered with the assistance of the government.
“We’ve taken a bold approach to what the new group might be able to accomplish in the next four years in terms of expanding our economy from the current levels to $30bn. The federal government has been named as our primary partner. Collaboration and partnership are two of our core governance philosophies.
We believe that by working with the federal government, we can turn a number of dormant assets we have in Enugu into productive ones.
We have enormous mineral resources in a new group, which many people are unaware of. And these resources are just sitting there under our ground doing nothing. We therefore think that we can turn these assets into productive assets through the partnership we’re attempting to establish with the federal government, Mbah said.
He said the following when discussing enhancing security and private sector investments in the Southeast: “You know that the growth level we have proposed is one that is going to be driven by the private sector and the 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 discussed that with Mr. President. Our announcement is very forceful. In Enugu, Monday home rest has been outlawed.
“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, basically that’s what I’ve come to do,” the speaker continued.
Upon being asked about the reason for his visit, the Governor responded, “I came and frankly I brought to the President, the warm greetings and best wishes from the government and the people of Enugu state.”
