Anambra State Governor, Chukwuma Soludo, has warned criminals in the South East, particularly, in Anambra state to accept rehabilitation or they would be taken out.
The governor also stressed that the release of the detained leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu, and the ongoing insecurity in the South-East are two distinct matters.
Kanu has been in the custody of the Department of State Services for nearly five years since his arrest in Kenya by the Nigerian government, despite persistent calls from various quarters for his release. Some have argued that freeing Kanu would help reduce insecurity in the region.
However, during a media chat to mark his third anniversary in office on Monday, Soludo, who has been among those advocating for Kanu’s release, maintained that the two issues should not be linked.
“The release of Nnamdi Kanu for me is different from the issue of security, I separate the two, I don’t link the two,” he said.
He further explained that his advocacy for Kanu’s release is aimed at involving him in a broader discussion on the future of the Igbo people.
“Nnamdi Kanu for me is for us to have a conversation of a long-term future for the Igbos, and that is a different conversation,” Soludo added.
Addressing the issue of insecurity, the governor stated that his administration has extended an olive branch to criminals in the state, offering them rehabilitation and empowerment opportunities.
“For the criminals who are kidnappers, we have given them an olive branch—come out, we will train you, we will empower you, we will rehabilitate you. If you don’t, we take you out,” he warned.
Soludo noted that despite his continued appeals for Kanu’s release, self-proclaimed IPOB factional leader, Simon Ekpa, and his followers have taken advantage of the situation to escalate violence in the South-East.
“A whole lot of this Simon Ekpa and some of his band of criminals took over and turned things into a killing spree, just killing people with reckless abandon,” he said.
Ekpa, who claims to have assumed leadership of IPOB following Kanu’s arrest, was arrested by Finnish police in November last year for what authorities described as “public exhortation to an offence, committed with terrorist intent.”
Governor Soludo dismissed Ekpa’s motives, stating that he sees no clear agenda behind his actions other than financial exploitation.
“I have no idea what Ekpa is pursuing other than to swindle people for money,” he concluded.