SOUTHEAST governors yesterday expressed their beliefs in using political solution to free the incarcerated leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu.
An appellate court had penultimate week discharged the IPOB leader and dismissed the six-count charge preferred against him by the Federal Government.
Also last week, the Appeal Court sitting in Umuahia, ordered the Federal Government to return separatist to Kenya and awarded a N500 million in his favour against the government.
Dissatisfied with the first ruling, the Federal Government approached the court and got a stay of execution and went ahead to challenge the ruling at the Supreme Court.
But, at their meeting in Enugu, Southeast governors after their meeting at the Government House in Enugu, Enugu State, said they were monitoring the situation.
Chairman of the Southeast Governors’ Forum and Ebonyi State Governor, Dave Umahi, who read the communique to reporters, said they were “watching with keen interest, the developments with respect to the case of Nnamdi Kanu viz-a-viz the court rulings.
“However, we believe that a political solution is still possible in this circumstance.”
Umahi disclosed that the governors, who were also perturbed by the alarming level of insecurity in the region, resolved to set up a 24-hour patrol team in all the major highways in the zone.
At their meeting, which held in camera, the governors decried the state of insecurity in the region, stating that economic activities have come to a halt, lamenting that kidnapping and wanton killings have become the order of the day.
Umahi said they agreed to set up a 24-hour joint patrol in all major highways within the Southeast, especially during the Christmas season.
They called on the federal authority to come to provide security in the region bearing in mind that elections were around the corner.
The governors commended the states and the federal government on efforts to alleviate the sufferings of the victims of the recent flood menace in the country.
The Ebonyi governor said they believed in the desirability of a long-term solution.
He said Southeast governors had decided to put funds together to further assist the victims of flooding in the five states in the region.
Umahi said: “We, also plead with the Federal Government to please initiate action in the dredging of rivers in the Southeast, to ameliorate the destruction of houses, farmlands and properties. We request the Federal Government to come to the aid of the victims in terms of rehabilitation of the internally displaced persons.
“Southeast Governors Forum jointly formed Ebubeagu and Forest Guards not ESN (Eeastern Security Network). So, it is not correct for any person to allude to fact that southeast governors created ESN.”
At the meeting were host Enugu State Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi; Umahi and Abia State Governor Okezie Ikpeazu.
Anambra and Imo states’ governors Prof. Charles Soludo and Hope Uzodimma were represented by their deputies, Onyekachukwu Ibezim and Prof Placid Njoku respectively.