Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Mrs Bianca Odumegwu Ojukwu, has urged the people of the Southeast to adopt dialogue and peaceful means in response to the imprisonment of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) leader, Nnamdi Kanu.
The minister made the call during the 14th edition of the Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu Memorial Day Celebration at the Ojukwu Memorial Library in Owerri on Wednesday.
She said though the court had sentenced Kanu, all hope was not lost, adding that dialogue and peaceful engagement could pave the way for his release from Sokoto Correctional Centre.
The annual memorial day was instituted by Chief Ralph Uwazuruike, founder of the Movement for the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), to honour the legacy of the late Biafran leader.
Mrs Ojukwu also led attendees in observing a minute’s silence for the late BBC journalist, Mr Frederick Forsyth, who resigned his post to cover events during the 1967–1970 Biafra-Nigeria civil war.
“Nnamdi Kanu is in prison, we should not get angry and it is not issue to use knives, gun or fighting ourselves in order to solve it.
“This coming Christmas, all of us should endeavour to meet with our National Assembly members and our governors, ask them the way forward to ensure that Kanu is freed from the prison.
“Also all of us should come together, plan ourselves on how to use peaceful means to settle this matter, we should plan how to meet with President Bola Tinubu and amicably resolve this matter,” she said.