Release IPOB Leader, Other Biafra Activists – Obi

Fri, Mar 24, 2017 | By publisher


Political Briefs


PETER Obi, a former governor of Anambra State, has called for the release of Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, and other detained Biafra activists. Obi, while fielding questions from newsmen in Enugu, on Thursday, March 23, said that the use of force was not the solution to the Biafra agitation as such agitations could be best resolved through dialogue.

He said: “I wish to appeal to the federal government to change its hard-line posture on this issue and yield to the persistent clamour for the release of Nnamdi Kanu and other Biafran activists to douse the tension in the country, especially in the South-East and South-South geo-political zones.

“The federal government should engage them in dialogue. Every agitation in the world is resolved through dialogue and not by means of force.”

The former governor recalled that he was among the first to advocate a political solution to the renewed Biafra agitation and expressed disappointment that the advice was yet to be heeded.

“This has been my consistent position, and I remember making the same point when I spoke at an event organised in Enugu in February 2016 by the Igbo Youth Movement,” he said.

He said that while the federal government could have reservations about the Biafra agitation, it should realise and acknowledge that the agitators, like other citizens, have their fundamental rights of freedom of expression and assembly guaranteed by the Nigerian constitution.

—  Apr 3, 2017 @ 01:00 GMT

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