Governor Peter Mbah of Enugu State on Thursday visited President Bola Tinubu at the presidential villa in Abuja.
Mr Mbah who addressed State House Correspondents after meeting with the Nigerian leader said the release of Nnamdi Kanu, detained leader of the Indigenous People Of Biafra (IPOB), was discussed alongside the assistance of the Federal Government to explore the abundant mineral resources in Enugu State for the benefit of the people.
“We have a number of dominant assets in Enugu which we believe partnering with the Federal Government, we’re able to transform them into productive assets.
“A lot of people do not know but we have huge mineral resources in a new group. And these resources are sitting under our ground not being productive. So, we believe with the partnership we’re trying to basically build with the Federal Government, we’re able to transform these assets into productive assets.
“Of course, you know that the growth level we have proposed is one that is going to be driven by private sector and private sector want the ease of doing business and one of the core indicators of the ease of doing business is security and infrastructure.
“So, we also had that conversation with Mr. President. We have made a very strong announcement. We’ve banned sit-at-home on Mondays in Enugu. And obviously, what that means is that we will, of course, need to, you know, heighten our security, tackle the challenges that would flow from that, and, you know, essentially that’s what I have come to do.
“And finally, we also of course, talked about the release of Nnamdi Kanu. You know, that the South East has made a collective demand to have Nnamdi Kanu released. And we basically identified with that and request Mr. President, who in his inaugural address promised the people that he’s going to engender national healing and he’s going to serve with compassion.
“So, we’ve basically informed him that this would serve as a pointer to his administration’s extension of hands of fellowship.”
Mr Kanu is still being held at the Abuja headquarters of the State Security Service (SSS) after he was extraordinarily renditioned from Kenya in 2021 by the immediate-past Buhari administration that has paid deaf ears for the release of the IPOB leader who has had series of favorable court judgement over his prosecution.
The health of the secessionist demanding the breakaway of the present-day South-East geo-political zone from Nigeria has reportedly deteriorated.
