Elder statesman, Prof. Ben Nwabueze, Monday, gave reasons
for his absence during last Friday’s meeting scheduled to hold between the
South-East Governors and the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB.
Nwabueze and Evang. Elliot Ugochukwu-Uko, the secretary of
Eastern Consultative Assembly, ECA, were to lead Kanu to the meeting.
However, the trio shunned the meeting, during which
the Governors proscribed all the activities of the IPOB.
The Governors were said to have been infuriated over the
absence of Kanu during the meeting, which was meant to be a follow up to a
similar dialogue held earlier at the Enugu Government House.
However, in a statement, Nwabueze said although he made all
arrangements to participate in the meeting, he changed his mind having
discovered that the essence had been defeated.
He made reference to reported invasion of Nnamdi Kanu’s
residence by the Nigerian Army.
Nwabueze, therefore, demanded that the Governors should
reschedule the meeting for a later date.
The statement read: “On 30th August, 2017 Mazi Nnamdi Kanu,
Evangelist Elliot Ugochukwu-Uko and I met with the South-East Governors Forum.
“The meeting was chaired by the current Chairman of the
Forum and Governor of Ebonyi State, H.E. Engr Dave Umahi, who, in his conduct
of the meeting, exhibited his characteristic sagacity, candour and
forthrightness tempered with friendliness.
“Perhaps charmed by the things said by the Chairman and the
way he conducted the meeting, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, on his part, showed an
accommodating disposition for an amicable resolution of the crisis, and more
specifically a disposition to reconsider the threat to stop or disrupt the 2019
elections and the Anambra State governorship election on 18 November, 2017, but
emphasized that the decision does not lie with him alone and that the
leadership of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) must be carried along.
“Accordingly, it was agreed to meet with the leadership of
IPOB in order to try to secure their agreement and support.
“Regrettably, while the follow-up meeting was being
arranged, the attack on Mazi Nnamdi Kanu’s home in Umuahia by soldiers of the
Nigerian Army on 10 September, 2017 occurred, as reported in the news media,
which, expectedly, triggered clashes between the IPOB supporters and the Army
in Aba, Umuahia and other places, resulting in the death of, or injury to,
several people. Reacting to this sad development, the IPOB leadership indicated
its intention not to attend the planned meeting.
“Despite all this, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu made it known that, in
the spirit of a search for amicable resolution of the crisis, he personally
would still attend the planned meeting, now fixed for Friday 15 September, 2017.
“However, a day or so before that date another attack on his
Umuahia residence by soldiers, armed with guns and armoured vehicles, involving
serious causalities, was reported in the media, which caused Nnamdi Kanu to
renounce his intention to attend the planned meeting, even despite all the
provocation that led to its repudiation by the IPOB leadership.
“It seems unreasonable and unfeeling to expect him to attend
the meeting when the casualties included two of his cousins.
“I had arrived Enugu from Lagos for the meeting on Thursday
15 September. But without the IPOB leadership, especially without Nnamdi Kanu,
it seems to me that the essential purpose of the meeting had been defeated. So
I went back to Lagos.
“The meeting should be reconvened when the tension caused by
these developments had quietened down.”
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