Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Benjamin Okezie Kalu has revealed that talks are ongoing to free incarcerated leader of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra, IPOB, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu from detention.
Kanu’s incarceration has generated a lot of agitations, including the sit-at-home being observed on Mondays in the South-East region.
Kalu, who was on the “South East political Roundtable”, a current affairs radio programme on FLO FM in Umuahia on Tuesday, Kalu said that talks were ongoing to free Kanu.
“We are working underground. There’s a detailed strategy. It’s not by violence, you can’t coerce the government through violence. It has never worked and won’t work. Let’s be wiser. The wisdom is in peace. Let’s quench the violence
He, however, advised the youth to ensure that the observance of sit-at-home must stop, emphasizing that it was scaring many investors who want to contribute to the development of the region.
Kalu called for support to enable the government of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to deliver optimally, saying that the president was interested in the development of the South-East.
He said: “We can’t put all our programs and plans on social media. He’s my brother. Is he in the mix of what we are trying to do? Yes! It’s one of our agenda to ensure he’s released. Who wants their brother to be in jail?
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“If it’s chaotic, it won’t work. Let’s cool down. Let the man see that you’ve recognised he didn’t contribute to locking him up and that he has not done anything to the South-East.
“We should support him and his government and not attack him. I’m standing firmly against the voice of violence, preaching peace. That is what I’m here for, this voice of peace will echo through the Villa and he will come out. Mr. President was happy with what happened in Bende, that the whole country can gather together and support this project.
“Look at what he has done by giving us the Chief of Naval Staff which we never got in the last eight years. Did I just mention the Naval Chief, what about the minister of works, Senator Dave Umahi, my good friend?
“Mr President gave the minister of works to an Igbo son that proved himself in Ebonyi and he said, come and build what you did in Ebonyi in the entire Nigeria starting from the five states of the South-East and the only way we pay the president back is to say there will be no work on Monday?
“If your agitation is about the release of Nnamdi Kanu; we love our Igbo land and we love our brother and he is my brother. That he is locked up does not make him less of my brother and that you are agitating does not make you less of my brother.
“Let us come together and unite and I can assure you that once we unite, there is nothing we ask this government that we cannot get, including the one you are asking for our brother, it is also achievable.”