The President General of Ohanaeze Ndi Igbo, Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, has said that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu should use his constitutional right as the President of Nigeria to release the incarcerated leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, despite the order from the Supreme Court.
Iwuanyanwu said this during an interview with ARISE NEWS on Sunday, where he also said that the release of Nnamdi Kanu will help the security operatives to differentiate between those fighting for Kanu’s freedom, and criminals operating under the guise of protests for Kanu’s release, so they can restore peace in the South-East.
Discussing the several calls for the release of Kanu from Incarceration, he said, “I, as a leader of Igbos, after consultation with my people, we all agree that there was no reason why Nnamdi Kanu should be incarcerated, no reason why he should be detained.
“He didn’t serve any risk. Rather, his release will help Nigeria, will help the security agencies to differentiate who is a criminal and who is a very honest and dedicated Nigerian. Because many criminals hide under the fact that Nnamdi Kanu is in detention and continue to unleash heinous crimes on our people in South-East.
“As you have already noticed, some people stay outside Nigeria and from time to time, mobilise armed robbers, armed gunmen, even declare sit at home. And of course, you know our people are mercantile people, people who are commercial.
“Most of the people live from day to day, from hand to mouth. And when these people are restrained from getting out to do their business, they suffer a lot of hardship. So, we believe that if Nnamdi Kanu is released, it will make the job of security very easy. All of us cannot be saying that he should be released without a just cause.
“The whole of our people, the political class, the religious class, all of them. And as a leader of Igbos, part of my mandate is to see that Nnamdi Kanu is released. And I have made the appeal to the President. I’ve even sought for appointment to meet the president with some leaders of the South-East, and the president has been very busy.
“I believe that once he’s free, he will invite us, because he has been busy attending to so many national and international matters. He will see us because, no doubt, South-East, the Igbos, we are part of Nigeria, we are committed to Nigeria, we believe in Nigeria, we have, over the years, made contributions to the building of Nigeria. So, if we cry to our leader, the president, to say this is our problem, I believe he will definitely listen to us.”
He further said, “Igbos in all the various states in Nigeria have now accepted Tinubu as our president, and we have pledged, and I say that on behalf of our people, that we are going to give Tinubu every support. But we expect Tinubu to look at this problem we have. We expect him to solve this problem which all of us are talking about.”
Iwuanyanwu then referred to the judgement that was given by the Supreme Court on Friday, which stated that Kanu should still remain in custody, saying, “The Supreme Court judgement doesn’t bother us because the Supreme Judge is supposed to interpret the law and carry our justice, that is.
“We actually didn’t make the appeal to the Supreme Court, the appeal we made was to the President. Our President, His Excellency, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, that’s the person that we actually made the appeal to, and I believe that our President will realise that if all Igbos are saying one thing, then there must be something in it.
“And besides, Nnamdi Kanu has openly renounced the activities of people who have been kidnapping, murdering, killing people in the South-East in the disguise of Nnamdi Kanu’s detention. Nnamdi Kanu has cautioned that they should stop. He said this openly and we know that. That is why we are saying that he should be released, because we don’t want people to continue to commit crimes under the guise that Nnamdi Kanu is in detention.
“So, I still believe that our president will yield to our request and release him so that now we can now differentiate between those who were actually fighting for him and those who were just criminals.”
The Ndi Igbo leader then said that he has been in touch with the Pan-Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF), Afenifere, Middle-Belt, and even several Hausa leaders, and they had all come to a conclusion that Nnamdi Kanu should be released, even releasing a communique to this effect after a meeting was held.
He said, “We don’t see any danger in releasing Nnamdi Kanu. Instead, there is danger when we are losing lives, we’re losing business, we’re losing every opportunity by his staying there… I have been able to convince majority of Nigerians to see that Nnamdi Kanu has not committed any offence that can put him incarcerated for such a long time, and then, this incarceration is putting our whole civil population in South-East in jeopardy, their life is threatened, their business is threatened, everything is threatened.
“So, that is why I believe our president can do it. But if there is any act of terrorism that is linked with him- but we don’t know of any. We don’t know of any act of terrorism linked to him to say he is a terrorist, we haven’t seen any.
“So, I still believe that the appeal we are making is to the president. After all, the president has got a constitutional right, even if someone is condemned to death, to give a reprieve and get the person relieved.”
Ozioma Samuel-Ugwuezi
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