Mazi Nnamdi Kanu looking sad
Worried by the continued detention and the stories of the deteriorating health condition of the leader of the Indigenous People of Diaspora Biafra (IPoB), Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, the Igboezue International Association Nigeria and the Diaspora (IIAND), yesterday called on President Ahmed Bola Tinubu, to release him unconditionally.
Addressing newsmen in Onitsha, the National President of IINDA, Chief Pius Okoye, said that it had become very imperative for Mazi Kanu, to be released without further delay to avoid any situation that would aggravate the already tensed security situation of the South East and Nigeria, caused by his continued detention.
IIAND expressed surprise that many months after President Tinubu assumed office, Mazi Kanu is still being held in captivity, adding that nobody expected that Tinubu would enter office and two months after, he did not order the release of Mazi Kanu, who had earlier been discharged and acquitted by competent courts of jurisdiction in Nigeria,
The IIAND said: “Nnamdi Kanu’s release from detention is the number one key to the solution of insecurity in South East, and any government like the immediate past that neglected the need for the release of Mazi Kanu, does not want peace in South East and Nigeria in general. South East has never in its history witnessed the kind of insecurity like it has in recent time and it is attributable to the detention of Mazi Kanu.
“The continued detention of Nnamdi Kanu amounts to open hostility and hidden contempt with which the Nigerian state has been treating Ndigbo. Notable Igbo people have made calls and visits to the immediate past and present government in the country for the release of Mazi Kanu, but they were rebuffed, neglected and not respected, some of the people who made the calls and visits have died, yet they were not respected by the Nigerian Federal government with the release of Mazi Kanu, as they requested, at least to honour them.
“The likes of elder statesman and foremost nationalist, Chief Mbazulike Amachi, eminent former ambassador and immediate past President of Ohaneze Ndigbo, Prof. George Obiozor, former Governor of Anambra State, Dr Chukwuemeka Ezeife, eminent constitutional lawyer and former Secretary of Ohaneze Ndigbo, Prof Ben Nwabueze, made visits to former President Mohammadu Buhari in Abuja and Ebonyi State, for the release of Mazi Kanu, and incidentally they have all died, but were not respected by that administration with the release of Mazi Kanu. It is disrespectful for the government of Nigeria to continue to hold Kanu after their demise.
“This lack of respect for calls by Igbo elder statesmen for the release of Mazi Kanu, cannot not be accepted, extended or tolerated by non Igbo. If such calls were made by their eminent counterparts from other parts of the country we are sure the government would have listened to them and release the person they demanded for his release.
“There is no offense the president of the country cannot forgive concerning any citizen, if there is sincerity in the call for one Nigeria. We call on President Tinubu to do the needful now, Nnamdi Kanu, should not be allowed to die in detention. It will not be in the interest of Nigeria, the country will loose greately if anything untoward happens to him in detention. We must warn.”
