Oladipupo Awojobi and Kenneth Ofoma 
The pan-Yoruba socio-political group, Afenifere, and the Ohanaeze Ndigbo have welcomed a political solution to the cases of Yoruba agitator, Sunday Adeyemo (alias Sunday Igboho) and the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) leader, Nnamdi Kanu. They were reacting to comments by the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice Abubakar Malami (SAN) that the government would consider a political solution to the issues of the two secessionists. Afenifere’s National Leader, Chief Ayo Adebanjo believes addressing the matter politically was the only way to go. Adebanjo, who spoke with Saturday Telegraph in an interview, said that the pronouncement is a sign that the nation is now behaving like a country being run with a constitutional democracy.
“I wish more of this should come from the federal government. “The secessionists have constitutional rights, what did they do. They damaged the property of Sunday Igboho as if we are in a Banana Island. “Igboho should be compensated for the way they unlawfully damaged his property. It’s not done. They should release Nnamdi Kanu to encourage the rest of us and rule us in a constitutional manner.
“The constitution that we are using is not our own, they imposed it on us, it will not work,” he said. Reacting to the statement by Malami, the National Publicity Secretary of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Chief Alex Ogbonnia in an exclusive chat, said Malami’s new position was in tandem with long held position of the apex Igbo body that the various agitations for self-determination could be settled through dialogue and not court processes. Ohanaeze declared that it’s important for the government to hear from the agitators because there must be reason for their agitation; stressing for instance that IPOB is no longer something that could be banished by law because it has become a ‘religion’ or ‘opium’ of the masses of Igbo people. Ogbonnia declared, “By now it has become clearly necessary that government should have a rethink on its position towards IPOB and Sunday Igboho.” “The statement by Abubakar Malami, the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice is a welcome development. Ohanaeze had often taken a position that dialogue is a very veritable instrument of democracy.