Prof. Chukwuma Soludo is using his influence as governor of Anambra state to push a wrong cause. He is calling for the “unconditional release” of the so called leader of the banned Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, who has been in detention since 2021. According to the governor who is barely a year old in office, Kanu, if released, would “play a key role in the peaceful build-up to the general elections starting next month.” The governor spoke last week, Thursday, on a Channels TV programme ‘Politics Today’, titled ‘One-on-One with Governor Soludo’.
Soludo said he would send a formal letter to the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mallam Abubakar Malami (SAN), “in a few days.” He noted that insecurity had become “a huge challenge and a big threat” to the 2023 elections in the South-East, saying that “critical stakeholders like Kanu are needed to be around the table where security in the region will be discussed.” He said, “Our major focus is delivering on our plans for security, not just in Anambra, but the entire South-East and that is why we are calling for the immediate release of Kanu because he has to be part of the conversation.
“The AGF will receive a formal letter of our request for the release of Kanu in a few days time. It’s about the life and prosperity of the entire South-East. We want peace and transformation to return and we need all the stakeholders around the table. We have instituted a commission of inquiry in this conversation, but this is not enough if we do not have critical forces like Kanu around the table for conversation. We want the South-East to participate in these elections and we need Kanu. We are saying grant him administrative bail and I am prepared to stand as his surety and to produced him whenever he is required.”
Soludo is a former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), a symbol of the nation’s sovereignty and unity. The Kanu whose release he is fighting for is the very opposite of what the then CBN governor stood for. Or has he changed? Kanu is the self appointed spearhead of a secessionist, terrorist group that doesn’t recognize the Nigerian state. He has declared war on Nigeria. This is his crime and the court is handling it as the rule of law demands.
Yes, Kanu is “a critical stakeholder” only in so far governors like Soludo have allowed him the economy of tg’he region. Kanu is using the South-East as an economic shield to prosecute his breakaway agenda. To bring the economy back on the growth path means ‘decriticalising’ by letting his trial go on.
We strongly advise Mr. Soludo to let a sleeping dog lie. President Muhammadu Buhari has made the position of his government on Kanu pretty clear. The young man, probably misled, is on trial in a properly constituted court of law. Let the trial run its full course. Nobody, not even a Soludo should try to stop it.
