Kalu: Efforts  to Nnamdi Kanu Ongoing

Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja

The Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Benjamin Kalu has assured the people  that the effort to release the leader of the  proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu from detention was ongoing.

 The Supreme Court recently ordered the retrial of Kanu who has been in detention for a long while now. His incarceration has generated a lot of agitations including the Sit-at-home observed on Mondays in the South-east region.

Speaking virtually on the “South East political Roundtable”, a current affairs radio programme on FLO FM in Umuahia  yesterday, Kalu said that talks were ongoing to free Kanu.

 The Deputy Speaker, in a statement issued yesterday,  said it was part of the agenda to ensure Kanu is released.

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 agendas to ensure he’s released. Who wants their brother to be in jail? 

 “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.

 “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.

 “Our strength does not lie in how many guns we carry, nor in how many people we threaten not to come out on Monday, that is not the display of the strength of an Igbo man. Igbo men are not lazy people who like sitting at home from Saturday to Sunday to Monday and go to work only Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, that is not us; we are hard working, we are rebuilders, we are never down and when we are down, we find a way to stand on our feet and raise our shoulders and rebuild again, that is my call to our people.”