From Godwin Tsa, Abuja
The Human Right Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has urged President Bola Tinubu to order the immediate release of the detained leader of the Indigenous Peoples Of Biafra (IPOB) Mazi Nnamdi Kanu and other unjustly detained Igbo youths as the most potent way for his administration to honour the memory of the leader of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu.
HURIWA noted that for nearly a year, the late leader of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu had made several entreaties to the President to offer unconditional amnesty to Kanu who has languished in the detention of the Department of State Services (DSS).
The group counselled President Tinubu not to be like his predecessor who failed to accept all entreaties by notable Igbo leaders, including the then global leader of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide Professor George Obiozor and also the First Republic Aviation minister Chief Mbazuluike Amaechi, who both died begging unsuccessfully for Kanu’s release.
HURIWA said the best way to assure the over 60 million Igbo speaking natives worldwide that the Nigerian president truly meant every word he uttered in memory of the late Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu is to release Kanu.
“He should without any further waste of precious time, save the South East from the prolonged economic bleeding due to instability and insecurity which escalated with his arrest and prolonged detention and thousands of his loyalists by the immediate past government of Muhammadu Buhari.” HURIWA described the late Igbo leader as one of the clearest advocates of human rights just as the Rights group commended the late Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu for his well-known philanthropic activities since the 1980s.
“Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu lived as a respected nationalist but importantly, he was someone who was passionate about the need for equity, social justice, equality of rights of all citizens and the advancement of the Igbo society, language, culture, traditions and entrepreneurship,” HURIWA said.