…endorses Govt. Otti’s Second Term
The Senator representing Abia South Senatorial District, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, has expressed optimism that President Bola Tinubu would facilitate the release of the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu.
Abaribe, while fielding questions from journalists after visiting the governor of the state, Dr Alex Otti, in the company of his wife, described President Tinubu as a listening leader, expressing hope that he would heed the advice of the Attorney General of the Federation and others who are advising and appealing for Nnamdi Kanu’s release.
“I expect that the President will listen to both his Attorney General and every one of us who have been agitating that the issues in the Southeast; first of all the insurgency, the sit-at-home on Mondays and every other thing we have noticed in the Southeast, what we now know in the Southeast is that criminals and all other people who advocate violence have taken over and using the name Nnamdi Kanu to perpetuate all these their 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 and 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 Southeast and bring back the Southeast as the hub of production in Nigeria”,
“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 Southeast, that have made us not produce as much as we ought to produce, will not be there.
“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 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”, Senator Abiriba Stated.
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On his visit to Gov. Otti who is not a member of his political party, Senator Abaribe said, Senator Abaribe, who is also the Chairman of the Southeast Senators Forum, said that they spent quite a lot of time discussing issues of governance in the state and what they at the National Assembly could do to help the Governor achieve more for the State.
He also said that they discussed matters concerning the Southeast, including President Tinubu’s proposed tax reforms, which he said he will relate to his colleagues when he gets back to Abuja and see how it will help the Southeast.
Senator Abaribe said that their concern is the development of the Southeast and to ensure that the Southeast is not left behind while the rest of Nigeria is moving on.
“Even though my party is APGA and his party is Labour, we feel that we have gone beyond party, and we are now at the point of Governance. So, I came to encourage him, he’s done so well and we wanted to make sure that we continue to inspire him to do much more for the people of Abia.
“Let me say this, I come from Aba; he has done tremendously well in Infrastructure, the whole infrastructure in Aba. I have driven around, I have seen everything.
“All I want to do is to continue to encourage him to continue in the path that he has chosen. We also agreed that we are going to come around to commission some of the projects that he has done in and around my Senatorial Zone.
“I think the second tenure is still very far away but I do not see any stumbling block on the way if we go by what he has done at this point”, Senator Abaribe declared.
He also commended President Tinubu for promising to do the rail lines and other infrastructure within the Southeast during his visit to Enugu State over the weekend.
On President Tinubu’s Tax Reform bill before the National Assembly, Senator 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 Southeast 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”, Senator Abaribe concluded.