TheCable

Ejike Mbaka, spiritual director of Adoration Ministry, Enugu, Nigeria (AMEN), says the arrest of Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), will not solve the country’s security challenges.

Abubakar Malami, attorney-general of the federation, had said Kanu was extradited from an undisclosed location to Nigeria on June 27.

After the IPOB leader was rearraigned, the court ruled that he should be kept in the custody of the Department of State Services (DSS), pending when his trial will resume — Kanu is facing charges bordering on treasonable felony.

Speaking in his church on Sunday, Mbaka said the federal government should have channelled its resources into tackling insecurity, rather than arresting Nnamdi Kanu.

“Since you people arrested him, we have lost many lives. So, of what use is his arrest? After he was arrested, last week at Kaduna, one hundred and something students were kidnapped. Where are our security agencies? They should use the same gravity, glamour, forcefulness and ingenuity with which they arrested Nnamdi to arrest all those people doing these things. Because if Nnamdi is still in their custody, and one hundred and something students were still kidnapped, it does not not solve the problem,” he said.

“If the arrest of Nnamdi would make Nigeria to prosper, we would say ‘hold him’. But we have come to see that even as he has been arrested, many people have been killed.

“During the election, most of the politicians will buy ammunition and give to millions of our youths who are jobless. After the elections, nobody goes to collect the ammunition back, and now there is a hike in banditry, hike in terrorism, hike in a lot of atrocities.

“The arrest of Nnamdi does not solve any problem. Rather, it aggravates it. Has anybody seen Nnamdi Kanu kill anyone? He is not a murderer. Has anybody caught him with guns? Are you arresting someone who has not kidnapped anybody?”