The lawmaker representing Abia North, Senator Orji Uzor Kalu, on Sunday lamented that the secessionist agitations linked to the activities of the convicted leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu, led to the death of over 30,000 people and the destruction of businesses across the South-East.
Kanu disclosed this when he was featured as a guest on Channels Television’s Politics Today.
Speaking against the backdrop of Kanu’s recent conviction on terrorism charges, the former Abia governor cautioned political actors and supporters to shelve what he described as “noise making” and instead pursue a political resolution to the crisis.
The lawmaker argued that public discourse has been disproportionately fixated on clashes involving security operatives while ignoring the mass casualties and business losses suffered by ordinary people across the South-East.
He said, “I wouldn’t like to talk about this issue. It’s not the time for noise-making or fighting. It’s a time for sober reflection. We have to solve this problem holistically. Do you know that over 30,000 Igbos were killed? People who have shops lost their businesses.
“I used to sell my own manufactured products in Aba. I know what the numbers were. But people are just talking about soldiers killed and not the rest of them. The problem of Nnamdi Kanu is what we need to solve through political process.
“Just as the theory Bianca Ojukwu and Mascot Kalu propounded, they (people) should stop the noise and focus on the settlement with the federal government. Let me tell you. I have been working with the Federal Government on how to solve this issue.”
Kalu described the destruction as widespread and deeply personal, recalling traders who lost their livelihoods, including his late mother’s friend, whose rice business was wiped out during the unrest.
“My mother’s friend had a rice shop. The woman who owed my mother about N4.2m. But they ransacked the old woman’s shops and she went bankrupt. Nobody talks about it,” he lamented.
Kalu, who said he has been quietly engaging the Federal Government on a political settlement for Kanu, stressed that resolving the matter requires strategic dialogue rather than heightened emotions.
“Let Igbos stop being emotional. I want us to settle down, go on our knees and find a way that a man can be released. It’s part of my job to do it.
“Let me take you to memory lane, when I wanted to join the APC in 2016, Late President Buhari, with his minister of justice, and the DSS found a way to support me because I told them I wouldn’t join the party if Kanu was not released on bail to face trial. (Of course) If you order people to kill others, you must face trial. But I wanted it to be in his house.
“But they wanted it to be in my house, I told them no because where I live is sensitive. So, I said release him to Umuahia. Alhaji Mamman Daura and Malami are alive. They all helped to make sure that he was released on bail. I know the pressure that I faced before his release in April 2017,” he noted.
However, the former governor decried that despite all he passed through to tame Kanu, he felt betrayed by the chains of reaction that almost brought the South-East to its knees.
The senator further recounted his past interventions, including persuading the Buhari administration to grant Kanu bail in 2017, and resisting pressures to stop The Sun newspaper — which he owns — from publishing stories on the IPOB leader.
He said, “I know my discussion with Nnamdi Kanu. I was the first to see him in 2016 and the first to meet him when he came from Kenya. I know my discussion with him. The DSS was there. They heard my discussion with him.
“Remember, I own the Sun Newspaper. On four occasions, President Buhari wanted to proscribe the newspaper because it was the only paper supporting Kanu. It’s not owned by Igbos. But I told the journalists who work in the Sun Newspaper to write what they see because it is a public trust.
“The then federal government wanted The Sun to stop putting Nnamdi Kanu on the front page. But I’m for free press. Louis Odion is your colleague. When he left as the Sun editor after five years, he wrote at the back of The Nation title that I was the best publisher he had seen. If you ask Femi Adesina, Mike Awoyinfa and the late Dimgba Igwe, they will tell you the same thing.”
Kalu also defended Justice James Omotosho, who convicted Kanu earlier in the week, insisting that court judgments must be respected even when contested.
“Nobody should question the decision of Justice Omotosho. If you are displeased, you go to the appellate court. It’s not to start insulting the man.”
He criticised Kanu for being “unruly and unnecessarily aggressive toward the judge,” contrasting it with his own conduct during his corruption trial.
“If you remember, I was given 12 years (imprisonment), but I never insulted the judge. The other day, I saw the judge at the National Assembly when he came to be confirmed as a Supreme Court Justice. I embraced him and gave him all court seats.
“We must condemn certain behaviours. You cannot rant up in the competent jurisdiction. I take exception to it. People might say it is good. Justice Omotosho is just a messenger of the court. It is his job. If you are displeased, you go to the appellate court. It’s not to start insulting the man,” he argued.
Earlier in the week, The PUNCH reported that the Federal High Court in Abuja convicted Nnamdi Kanu on all seven terrorism-related charges brought against him. Justice James Omotosho sentenced him to life imprisonment on counts one, two, four, five and six—opting against the death penalty.
He was handed down 20 years on count three, which involved membership of a proscribed terrorist group, and five years on count seven for unlawful importation of a radio transmitter. Both carry no option of a fine.
The charges stemmed from Kanu’s secessionist activities, alleged killings of security personnel, destruction of public infrastructure, and the operations of Radio Biafra.
The court ruled that his threats and sit-at-home directives in the South-East amounted to acts of terrorism under Nigerian law.
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