From Geoffrey Anyanwu, Enugu
President Bola Tinubu has again been called upon to use his office to get the leader of Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) out of incarceration.
One of the Igbo leaders and founder, All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Chief Chekwas Okorie, who made the appeal yesterday, urged the President to seize the moment and grant or facilitate the release of Kanu and his fellow prisoners of conscience.
In a statement, Okorie noted that Kanu has become the symbol of the struggle of the Igbo nation for equity, justice and fairness, stressing that his case was a huge local and international embarrassment to Nigeria.
Okorie informed the president that the economic and security stability that Kanu’s freedom would bring to the South East geopolitical zone would be unquantifiable.
His statement read: “It is with utmost sense of responsibility and patriotism that I passionately appeal to President Bola Tinubu to seize the moment and grant or facilitate the release of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu and his fellow prisoners of conscience from further incarceration in a Nigerian dungeon.
“I am persuaded by the new opportunity provided by the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, whose administrative intervention prompted the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court to reassign the protracted suit first filed by the Federal Government against Kanu on November 23, 2015, in an Abuja Magistrate Court. Since 2015, Kanu has suffered grievously, including his extraordinary rendition from Kenya on June 27, 2021.
“It is a known fact that by the operation of the law, this matter will be re-instituted afresh. This window provides President Tinubu the leverage to direct the Attorney General and Minister of Justice to enter a nolle prosequi in the Kanu matter to discharge and acquit him and bring a closure to his vexatious incarceration.”
Noting that the average Igbo person feels the pains of Kanu, he said: “I appreciate the fact that President Tinubu inherited the liability of Kanu’s unjustified detention, but since government is a continuum, the onus is on the President to bring this matter to an end.
“There is no doubt that Kanu’s case is a huge local and international embarrassment to Nigeria. Kanu has become the symbol of the struggle of the Igbo nation for equity, justice and fairness.
“I venture to state unequivocally that the average Igbo person in Nigeria and in the diaspora feels the pain of Kanu’s unjustified continued suffering for simply speaking out for his people.
“President Tinubu may never imagine the several political mileage he will travel by granting Kanu’s freedom at this time. I enjoin President Tinubu to consider this appeal with dispassion and compassion.”