Nnamdi Kanu: ‘Release IPOB Leader To Ohanaeze Ndigbo Before Dialogue With Buhari Govt’

A counsel to Nnamdi Kanu, the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Maxwell Opara, has called on the Muhammadu Buhari-led administration to release the pro-Biafra activist.

The lawyer was reacting to a statement by the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami.

Malami, while speaking to newsmen on Wednesday, stated that the Muhammadu Buhari-led government may be willing to consider all kinds of solutions, including political ones, in order to resolve the crisis surrounding agitations.

Asked whether the Federal Government was not disposed to a political solution to issues concerning Nnamdi Kanu and Sunday Adeyemo, also known as Igboho, Malami stated that the government would not mind taking a shot at it.

Speaking to PUNCH on Thursday, Barrister Opara stated that political solution may solve issues rocking the Southeast.

He called on the federal government to release Nnamdi Kanu to Ohanaeze Ndigbo and traditional rulers in the region.

Opara said, “For someone agitating for self-determination, the political solution there is to address all the things he is agitating for and the things those supporting him are agitating for: equitable distribution of appointment, creating employment, fight corruption with open mind, etc.

“If the government attack those issues and allow him to agitate if he wants to agitate. He is not the only one agitating; Nnamdi Kanu and some other persons are agitating and when people are agitating, what you should do is to create a solution by calling them to the round table to ask them, ‘What is the problem?' There is no problem that has no solution.”

When asked whether political solution will quell IPOB agitation, the lawyer said, “Yes, it can; it is all about talking (dialogue). Don't we have issues in our various families? Don't we have issues at work and other places? But everybody comes to the round table to resolve it.”

“The first step is to release him to Ohanaeze and the traditional rulers. That will calm the situation down and pave the way for people to talk. It is all about the approach but you cannot beat a child and ask the child not to cry.”