A group under the aegis of the Concerned Igbo Citizens Council (CICC) has called on the Federal Government to, as a matter of necessity, approve the unconditional release of all pro-Biafra activists and other Nigerians incarcerated for self-determination agitations in fulfilment of President Bola Tinubu’s promised commitment to a free society.
This is contained in a statement issued this weekend by the Interim National Coordinator and Interim National Secretary, Comrade Ukachukwu Anaele Obioha and Mazi James Uke Okorie, and made available to newsmen in Owerri, the Imo State capital.
The group posited that the unconditional release of Sunday Igboho, a pro-Odua Republic agitator, and Omoyele Sowore is commendable but insisted that the gesture must be extended to Mazi Nnamdi Kanu and all other Nigerians currently detained for similar activities.
Obioha maintained that the continued detention of Kanu and hundreds of Igbo youths over IPOB activities, while their Yoruba counterparts have been granted a reprieve by the present administration, gives ‘an unsavoury ethnic and sectional colouration’ to the federal government’s action.
The group also urged the Department of State Services, Police, and National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to, as a matter of urgency, commence an investigation and compilation of a list of those killed, maimed, and unlawfully incarcerated for self-determination agitations across the board.
He said, “It has become most expedient and imperative to call on President Bola Tinubu to extend the amnesty he granted to two of his kinsmen, Sunday Igboho and Omoyele Sowore, to other Yoruba youths held for supporting the agitations of the duo.”.
According to the group, it would amount to criminal injustice to continue to detain the supporters of fans of Igboho and Sowore since the principal actors have been absolved of any wrongdoing per se.
He said, “We demand also the unconditional release, without any further delay, of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu and all Igbo and Eastern Nigerian youths currently detained for belonging to or supporting the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB.”.
“We urge the DSS, Police, and National Human Rights Commission, as well as other relevant government and non-governmental bodies, to compile and publish a comprehensive list of those killed, maimed, and unlawfully incarcerated or displaced for identifying with self-determination agitations across the country,” the group demanded”.
The council vowed to mobilise Nigerians across ethnic lines to stand up and assert their rights to a free society, calling on Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, Igbo Governors’, and all others calling for the release of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, not to forget his countless lieutenants being persecuted, in the quest for his release.
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