The World Igbo Congress (WIC), an apex organization for all people of Igbo descent in the diaspora, has urged the Supreme Court of Nigeria to effect the unconditional release of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) on December 15, 2023.
Chairman, World Igbo Congress (WIC), Dr Festus Okere charged the apex court not to succumb to pressures from any quarters but to release Kanu without any further delay.
Okere described Kanu as a freedom fighter and a leading advocate of Igbo interests within Nigeria whose case has been ratified by the recent ruling of the High Court of Enugu State.
The Court held that the selective classification of IPOB as a terrorist group by the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) and its sub-national entities violates Section 42 of the Nigerian Constitution.
According to Okere, it has now settled that IPOB was never and is not a terrorist entity, but has always been and remains, a non-violent organization advocating for the right of self-determination of the Igbos.
He said that regardless of the growing negative perception of the Supreme Court amongst the Nigerian populace, it continues to be the last hope of the common man.
“WIC believes that the Supreme Court will uphold the rule of law including the right of free speech and freedom of association enshrined in the Nigerian Constitution; and that it will ratify the numerous judgments and orders of its subordinate courts, and of various International Tribunals, which have all unanimously ordered the unconditional and immediate release of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu,” he said.
Okere said that the WIC and most Igbos had always considered the extraordinary rendition and solitary confinement of Kanu as part of the Federal Government’s overt and covert policy of unjustified discrimination against the Igbos, especially during the Buhari administration.
“The Buhari Administration considered the Igbos as a “dot” and an undeserving “5%” voters of the Nigerian polity.
This erroneous view led to its unjustified and unconstitutional but consistent persecution of the Igbos, in whole or in part. Mazi Nnamdi Kanu was collateral damage to that discriminatory and oppressive Federal Government of Nigeria policy.
“The Igbos are aware that Mazi Nnamdi Kanu was extraordinarily renditioned in Kenya by the Federal Government of Nigeria; and that the Nigerian Courts and other International Tribunals have held that it was illegal for the Federal Government of Nigeria to do so,” Okere said.
Since June 27, 2021, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu has been in solitary confinement in Nigeria. Even with his poor health conditions, he has been denied the opportunity to obtain appropriate medical treatment.
Many other sub-national groups and tribes within the Nigerian polity including the Northern Elders Council (NEC), and the Oduduwa Nation, have expressed a similar view demanding the right to self-determination as IPOB but none of their leaders or members are currently confined.
Similarly, the leadership of Boko Haram, an internationally certified terrorist organization has been freely operating within the Nigerian polity but appears to be pampered by the Federal Government of Nigeria.
New Telegraph