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The Senator representing Abia North Senatorial District, Orji Uzor Kalu, on Sunday said 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.
Sen. Kanu who stated this when he featured as a guest on Channels Television’s Politics Today, cautioned political actors and supporters to refrain from what he described as “noise making” and instead pursue a political resolution to the crisis.
According to him,, “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.”
The senator 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, emphasised that resolving the matter requires strategic dialogue rather than heightened emotions.
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.
He also 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.
Kalu also defended Justice James Omotosho, who convicted Kanu earlier in the week, stressing 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.”
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