APGA chieftain slams IPOB group for confronting Soludo in London

‎The National Coordinator, All Progressives Grand Alliance Media Warriors Forum, Chinedu Obigwe, has berated a group of people, claiming to be members of the Indigenous People of Biafra, for confronting the Anambra State governor, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, during a town hall meeting in London.

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‎The confrontation was said to have occurred at a town hall meeting in London convened by Soludo to interact with Anambra indigenes in Diaspora on the developmental strides of his administration as he begins his second term of four years.

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‎They accused the governor of not making efforts to secure the release of the IPOB leader, Nnamdi Kanu, and also accused him of sponsoring the attacks and killings of youths in the area.

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‎However, reacting to the development in a press statement issued on Tuesday, Obigwe faulted members of the group, clarifying that Soludo had been at the forefront of the release of Nnamdi Kanu.

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‎Obigwe insisted that Soludo has been on the vanguard for the release of Kanu, urging the Federal Government to hand him over to him.

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‎He said the clarification became necessary for the purposes of clarity and brevity.

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‎He said, “The attention of the APGA Media Warriors has been drawn to a report that the Anambra State Governor, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, was confronted by a group of people claiming to be members of IPOB. The confrontation was said to have occurred in London during a meeting of the indigenes of Anambra in diaspora.

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‎“They accused the governor of not making efforts at securing the release of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu and also accused him of sponsoring the attacks and killings of youths in the area. Against this backdrop, it has become instructive that we state the following points for the purposes of clarity and brevity.

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‎“At the inception of Soludo’s administration, he had appealed to criminal elements leaving in the forest to come out under his amnesty programme and be rehabilitated.

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‎“Soludo urged them to hand over their arms and join in the development of Anambra state, which lasted for months.

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‎“Those who accepted the offer were reintegrated into the society, and those who had been in detention were granted bail.

‎Above all, Governor Soludo also visited Mazi Nnamdi Kanu at the DSS facility, where he described the Monday sit-at-home order as illegal and also described the killings and kidnappings in Igbo land as unacceptable to him.

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‎“Despite these honest and deliberate moves by the Governor, those miscreants operating under the guise of IPOB persisted in holding eight local government areas of Anambra state under siege.

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‎“People fled their homes, and the economy of the entire Southeast was being criminally sabotaged to say the least.”

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‎According to him, consequent upon the lawlessness that pervaded in the state, as it were, Soludo introduced and launched the “Operation Udo-Ga-Chi,” which is made up of the Agunechemba Security Squad as well as all the service commands in the state, aimed at putting an end to the carnage in Anambra state.

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‎Most of these perceived agitators have not come home in the past 10 years for fear of being kidnapped or killed, and their relatives have continued to advise them not to return home.

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‎“It is indeed clear that those who came to confront Soludo at the Town Hall meeting are those sponsoring the killings, arsons and insecurity in Anambra State, as they have actually lost their deposits in this bloody and deadly enterprise.

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‎“For the first time in the past 10 years, Anambra State celebrated a mass return as cultural and other traditional functions were held with pop and pageantry.

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‎“These fifth columnists are apparently the real enemies of Anambra and indeed Ndigbo giving the fact that they are protesting against the peace and tranquillity that our people are currently enjoying.

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‎“We challenge them to come home in order to have a first-hand and on-the-spot assessment of the peace in Igbo land rather than making very bogus and false claims,” he added.

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