ANAMBRA HOLDS SECURITY DIALOGUE, DEMANDS RELEASE OF NNAMDI KALU

REPORTER: ONYINYE CHIJIOBI

Anambra State Government has called on all aggrievied groups in the area to join forces with it to achieve desirable peace for development.

Also all churches in state, irrespective of denomination, and traditional bodies are to hold a prayer session for total restoration of peace in the area and South East in general from Monday.

The Governor Chukwuma Soludo made this known at a one day “Peace Building and Security Dialogue” held at Professor Dora Akunyili Women Development Center, Awka.

The event attracted traditional rulers, security chiefs, church leaders, youth and women leaders among other organizations.

The people of the south Eastern Nigeria have been observing sit at home order by non-state actors for fear of the unknown.

The sit-at-home order was was initiated as part of agitation to free the leader of the Indegenious People of Biafra (IPOB), Mazi Nnamdi Kalu, who had been in detention.

Governor Chukwuma Soludo while calling on all groups to assist government in pressing home their demands to the federal government, said that only dialogue would help in the face of any challenge.

Professor Soludo urged the people of the state, those at home and in the diaspora, to join in the prayer session of total peace, restoration and release of Nnamdi Kalu, believing that the the prayer would mark the end of the sit at home order that had crippled the economy of the zone.

He assured the people that security of lives and property was his top priority, saying that community vigilantes would be revamped while he would soon launch the security trust fund for better service delivery.

He urged those in various camps of agitation to shield their swords and help government in building a new Anambra while striving for the release of Nnamdi Kalu.

The Governor
stressed that his administration would undertake to train, rehabilitate and empower youths to contribute to the development of the state.

He said that the centres would be established would be announced next week.

The Governor called on all injured, aggrieved and victims of insecurity in the state over the past three years to step forward and cooperate with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission that would be inaugurated soon.

According to Governor Soludo, the Commission will conduct an inquiry into the remote and immediate causes of the agitations, documentation and examination of the circumstances surrounding the killings in the south east, and recommendations on the road to sustainable solutions.

The Chairman, Anambra State Traditional Rulers Council and Obi of Onitsha, Igwe Alfred Achebe, who read the communique of the Joint Body of South East Council of Traditional Rulers and Bishops/Archbishops on the State of Insecurity in Igbo homeland, said that the call was important for the restoration of genuine peace and normalcy in the South East based on justice, equity, fairness, love, mutual understanding as well as
to consider path ways to restore normalcy in Anambra State.

They also called for constructive and continuous dialogue by all parties as a more sustainable solution to overcoming the challenge and win the hearts and minds of the people, maintaining that they joined their voices to the call for the unconditional release of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu by the Federal Government in order to douse the current tension across the zone.

The member representing Anambra Central in the Senate, Senator Uche Ekwunife and Mr. Chris Azubuogu representing Nnewi North and South in the House of Representatives, who said that the primary responsibility of any government was security and peace of its citizens, attributed some of the insecurity challenges facing the zone to poor parenting.

For his part, the Speaker Anambra State House of Assembly, Mr. Uchenna Okafor, said dialogue would go a long way in solving insecurity, adding that the House of Assembly would give their maximum support needed to achieve his mission.

The President Ohaneze Ndigbo in Anambra State, Chief Damian Okeke-Ogene, said that the leadership of the federal government had marginalized the Igbo while disunity among governors of the South East had led to some of the challenges in the zone.

Some youth leaders, who lent their voices, including Mr. Chukwuma Okpalaezeukwu and Miss Chiamaka Iloraha, while saying that youths were pillars to security, called for the release of political prisoners detained unlawfully.