The apex socio-political group, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, has made an appeal to the Federal Government to release the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu, as a Christmas gesture for the South-East region.
Chief Damian Okeke-Ogene, the Vice-President of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, conveyed this request on behalf of the group during an interview with our correspondent on Sunday.
He emphasized that failing to release Kanu would signify dashed hopes for the people in the South-East this Christmas.
This plea from Ohanaeze comes ahead of the Supreme Court judgment scheduled for December 15, 2023, regarding the Federal Government’s case against Kanu.
Okeke-Ogene strongly refuted claims suggesting the involvement of prominent Igbo figures, including governors from the region, in Kanu’s prolonged detention, dismissing such assertions as unfounded.
He said, “We don’t want to dwell much on the politics about the release of Kanu. If he is released on December 15, it is long overdue because competent courts of jurisdiction have on two occasions found him not guilty and also released him, but till now, nothing was done about it.
“So, we hope that the Supreme Court will equally do justice to it with the expectation that every Igbo man is expecting that President Bola Tinubu should know that the money and lives being wasted on the issue are not worth it. And he should, therefore, set the man free as a Christmas gift to the South-East if he truly wants peace to return to the region.
“The President should emulate former Presidents Umaru Yar’Adua and Goodluck Jonathan, who used the carrot and stick approach to stop the issue of militancy in the Niger Delta region. The average Igbo person is also facing the same situation.
“Kanu should be a free man from December 15 and anything short of that has dashed the hope of the whole of the people of South-East this Christmas. If he is not released, it will be a black Christmas in the region.
“We are not in the position to pre-empt the court but for now, we are looking up to the Supreme Court, if it is a country where the judiciary works, we don’t have to be afraid that the Federal Government would influence the judgment.”
However, Okeke-Ogene criticized the Federal Government’s failure to engage in collaboration with the government of Finland to address the matter concerning the autopilot faction of IPOB led by Simon Ekpa.
This faction is widely acknowledged for allegedly exacerbating insecurity in the region under the guise of agitation.
“As far as we know, there is a group now using the agitation to cause insecurity in the region. First of all, if Kanu is released, we will hear from him and we will all join hands together to discuss these issues. And our people hiding in the bushes would come out and be rehabilitated.
“On Simon Ekpa and his group in Finland, we believe that the Federal Government is enjoying what they are doing, otherwise there is a diplomatic way of resolving the issue. It is a government-to-government collaboration and the Federal Government has not explored that avenue to resolve the situation.”
