Kanu’s family slams S’East govs for keeping mum over restructuring, detention of IPOB leader

The family of the detained leader of Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, has lambasted all the governors in the South-East for allegedly keeping mum over restructuring of the country.

Secessionist agitations in the southeast had created heated tensions in the country leading to the re-arrest and detention of Nnamdi Kanu in June 2021.

Speaking with newsmen in Umuahia during the weekend, Kanu’s younger brother, Prince Emmanuel, blasted the governors for not pressuring the Nigerian government to release Kanu despite a court order.

Emmanuel expressed disappointment over what he described as their continued silence about restructuring around which IPOB agitations revolve around.

He also accused the governors of reneging on their promise made during a meeting between them and Kanu in 2017 where the latter was pressured to accept restructuring in lieu of secessionist agitations.

He said: “Nobody is talking of restructuring again after those leaders, although without success, wanted Kanu to drop agitation for self-determination and agree to a restructured Nigeria.

“Precisely on 30th August 2017, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu met with South East Governors. In fact, before the meeting, he had met with the late Dr Alex Ekwueme who pressured him to agree on the restructuring of Nigeria along the 1960 and 1963 Constitutions. The late Chief Mbazulike Amaechi and Professor Ben Nwabueze told him the same thing. They put him under pressure to accept restructuring.

“I remember he told them including the South East Governors that if they start negotiations on restructuring, he would tone down agitation for 12 months, but shockingly the South East Governors never related these messages to the Federal Government. They swept it under the carpet and four days after the meeting, our house was invaded during the infamous Operation Python Dance ll.

Read also:Kanu decries violence in South-East

“So, we are now thinking: was the reason they invited him for that meeting to kill him? This is because while we were going for that meeting, there were things we observed along the road but such observations are better disclosed by Onyendu Kanu himself. Regrettably, the trauma from the invasion of our compound was what killed my parents.

“How come up till today, nobody has ever mentioned the discussion that took place in Enugu? Why are the South East Governors and senators keeping mute? They tried to convince Nnamdi Kanu at the meeting that restructuring would be better than outright Biafra. So, restructuring was a choice proposed by Igbo Leaders.

“My brother told them at the meeting that if they were serious about it, he would want everybody – the necessary stakeholders – to be on the table for genuine discussions on how to move Nigeria forward. He told them that the federal government and other nationalities that make up Nigeria must come together for serious discussions. But could that discussion that my brother was insisting on what they wanted to avoid by invading our house?

“Now my question to the Federal Government, South East Governors and Igbo leaders: why are they mute about restructuring? Why is nobody mentioning restructuring again?”

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