The Chairman of the South East Senators and Senator representing Abia South District, Enyinnaya Abaribe has expressed optimism that President Bola Tinubu will release the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.
Abaribe who stated this on Sunday, January, 5th, when he alongside his wife paid Governor Alex Otti a Christmas and New Year visit, said that his concern as well as that of his colleagues is the development of the South East and to ensure that the South East is not left behind while the rest of Nigeria is moving on.
Abaribe described President Tinubu as a listening leader, expressing the hope that he will give heed to the advice of the Attorney General of the Federation and others advising and appealing for Mazi Nnamdi Kanu’s release.
“I expect the President will listen to both his Attorney General and every one of us who have been agitating that the issues in the South East first of all the insurgency, the sit-at-home on Mondays and every other thing we have noticed in the South East.
“What we now know in the South East is that criminals and all other people who advocate violence have taken over and using the name Nnamdi Kanu to perpetuate all these despicable acts.
“We know that the President, being a listening President, will also look at all the issues involved which we have presented to him from various mediums, that he will do the needful and release Nnamdi Kanu so that it will put a stop to all these things that are happening in the South East and bring back the South East as the hub of production in Nigeria.
“So, we continue to call on President Tinubu to release Nnamdi Kanu and we are ready and willing to be guarantors for him to be released so that we can have life coming back into the Southeast East and take it away from the criminals, kidnappers, the cultists and dangerous elements that are floating around us who have made it a point that they would perpetrate violence, do criminal activities and use Nnamdi Kanu’s name as their reason.”
Linking Kanu’s incarceration to the closure of businesses in the South East, Abaribe said, “The President wants to pass a tax bill that has to do with production. You cannot tax people who don’t produce.
“So he needs Nnamdi Kanu out so that all those things that are holding us down in the South East, that have made us not produce as much as we ought to produce, will not be there.”
He questioned why people would kill people they claim to be agitating on their behalf, stressing that it was not the proper way to agitate.
The Abia South Senator commended President Tinubu for promising to complete the Eastern Rail Line and other infrastructure within the South East during his visit to Enugu State over the weekend to commission projects.
Speaking more on President Tinubu’s Tax Reform bill before the National Assembly, Abaribe said, “We have a position of the South East that we will have to continue to negotiate and debate and that we do not want it to be passed in a hurry because it is something that will affect future generations.”
“The South East Senators Forum took a position just like the Governors and other people to do further negotiations and so, we believe that we are going to do this further negotiations.”
