The apex Igbo socio-cultural organization, the Ohaneze Ndigbo, has appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to release the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu to them.
The group promised to make the embattled Director of Radio Biafra realize the futility of continuing his pro-Biafra agitation.
Dr. Chris Eluemunoh, who is the Chairman of state presidents of Ohaneze Ndigbo in the east told newsmen in Awka, Anambra State, that if Kanu is released to Igbo leaders, he would be made to realize the negative effects of continuing with the efforts to actualize the Biafra Republic.
Eluemunoh, said the Igbo leaders believe that Kanu’s issue could be better handled and resolved if he was released to them.
He said: “IPOB and MASSOB (the Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra) can operate as pressure groups and not as secessionist groups. Many Igbo people are residing in other parts of Nigeria and there is no way they can abandon their investments to return to the East in the name of Biafra.”
Commending IPOB for ending their protests that shut down some cities in the east recently, Eluemunoh stressed that they stand to benefit more if they adopted dialogue in their approach.
He further described recent statement credited to Reverend Father Ejike Mbaka in which he was quoted to have said that some people were plotting to kill President Buhari, as reckless.
“Mbaka should face his evangelism work as a priest rather than creating panic in the country. If he received any revelation, the better thing for him to do is to keep it to himself and pray to God to avert such a thing. The president is the Commander -in -Chief of the country’s armed forces and is capable of securing himself and we see the statement by Mbaka as a distraction,” he said.
The Ohaneze leader also reiterated the organisation’s supports for Buhari’s anti-corruption war.