Ohanaeze Ndigbo, the apex Igbo socio-cultural organization, has pleaded with President Muhammadu Buhari to release the detained Director of Radio Biafra and leader of Independent People of Biafra (IPOB) Nnamdi Kanu to Igbo leaders, assuring that they would make him realize the futility of continuing his pro-Biafra stance.
Chairman of state presidents of Ohanaeze in the seven Igbo-speaking states, Dr. Chris Eluemunoh told reporters in Awka that Igbo leaders were equally concerned with the security challenges posed by the activities of the pro-Biafra group, adding that once Kanu was released to Igbo leaders, they would sit him down and discuss with him and make him realize the negative effects of continuing with efforts to actualize Biafra Republic.
According to Eluemunoh, a lot of discussions on how to tackle the issue of insecurity in the country were going on among Igbo leaders, adding that they believe that Kanu’s issue could be better handled and resolved if he was released to enable Igbo leaders get involved in the matter.
He said: “IPOB and MASSOB (the Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra) can operate as pressure groups and not as secessionist groups. Many Igbo people are residing in other parts of Nigeria and there is no way they can abandon their investments to return to the East in the name of Biafra.”
He however commended IPOB for ending their protests that grounded many cities in the East last year, assuring them that they would benefit more if they adopted dialogue in their approach to national issues.
The Ohaneze leader also spoke on the recent statement credited to the Enugu-based Reverend Father Ejike Mbaka in which he was quoted as saying that some people were planning to assassinate President Buhari, describing such a statement as reckless.
He added: “Mbaka should face his evangelism work as a priest rather than creating panic in the country. If he received any revelation, the better thing for him to do is to keep it to himself and pray to God to avert such a thing. The president is the Commander-in-Chief of the country’s armed forces and is capable of securing himself and we see the statement by Mbaka as a distraction.”
He said that Ohanaeze supports the President’s anti-corruption war, adding that by the way he is going, sanity would soon return to the country’s socio-economic life.
Biafra: Kanu’s continued detention‘ll create more national problems —Cleric
Bishop Amaechi Agbo, General Overseer of Bethel House of God Mission, Awkunanaw, Enugu, Enugu State, has advised the Federal Government to release the leader of Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) Nnamdi Kanu without further delay, to avoid throwing the nation into a more unmanageable crisis.
He said Kanu’s continued detention will continue to create more problems for the Nigerian nation since the detention of Kanu will not stop Biafra from becoming a reality, rather it would generate a crisis that will quicken the coming of Biafra.
Bishop Agbo who spoke at a special service organised for Nigerian leaders, noted that Biafra will surely come to pass, but not as soon as it is being speculated, rather at the appropriate time when the crisis will possibly force Biafra to separate from Nigeria.
“As for Biafra, it will come to pass, but not now. Crisis will force Nigeria to separate from Biafra and nobody can stop it at the appropriate time,” he said.
On the general state of the Nigerian nation, Bishop Agbo identified 2016 as a year Nigerians would witness positive-life changing transformation in the country.
According to him: “The administration of President Muhammadu Buhari has actually introduced truth, honesty and accountability to the management of the affairs of the nation,” adding that with the application of such healthy values in public service, the success of the nation’s security, economy, health, education and administrative policies, economic recovery would be guaranteed.
-Vanguard
