Barely 48 hours after Igbo elders staged a peaceful protest in front of Abia Government House, Umuahia, Jewish worshipers, today, held an intensive prayer session at the Afaraukwu Umuahia family house of the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, seeking divine intervention over his fate.
The crowd of worshipers who came from different states in the South East, Rivers and Delta States, later held a solidarity rally for Kanu, and demanded his unconditional release, reports Vanguard.
They urged President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to heed the growing appeals from across the country and free the IPOB leader.
Like South East elders, the Jewish worshipers also urged Gov. Alex Otti to collaborate with his brother Governors in the South East to prevail on the President to release Kanu.
According to them, the President will listen to South East Governors if they unite as a force and press for Kanu’s release.
The Jewish adherents also prayed “for return to normalcy in all the communities ravaged by Fulani herdsmen and bandit attacks”.
During the solidarity rally, the Jewish worshipers displayed placards to express their feelings and demands concerning Kanu.
Some of the placards read: ‘Free Nnamdi Kanu, he committed no crime known to the law’; Eastern Judaism calls for the release of Nnamdi Kanu from DSS detention; ‘Obey Court order Tinubu’; ‘Free Nnamdi Kanu’, among others.
They argued that Kanu did nothing to warrant his persecution and urged President Tinubu to consider Kanu’s release as a necessary step to unite the country.
Speaking on behalf of the worshipers, the Deputy National Rabbi of Biafraland, Rabbi Okezie Anosike, said Kanu should be treated like the Yoruba nation agitator, Sunday Igboho.
“What Kanu is demanding is not different from what Sunday Igboho is demanding for the Yoruba nation, and yet he (Igboho) is free”.
Continuing, he said: “We ask President Tinubu to set Kanu free. We ask Governor Otti to do all in his power to bring freedom to Kanu,” he said.
Citing Kanu’s deteriorating health conditions, Anosike urged for urgent action to avoid any worst-case scenario.
Speaking also, Ofuji Ekhad, who led the Anambra delegation, said that Kanu committed no crime for agitating for self-determination for his people.
“There is nothing abnormal in Kanu’s demand for sovereign state of Biafra”, he said, adding that self-determination is a universally recognised right.
Elder Shahum Ogu from Imo State urged “all political leaders, connected in one way or the other with Kanu’s travails, to please have a change of heart and work for his release.
He described Kanu as “a prophet, a messenger of God, who advocates for justice, equity, and people’s rights”, adding that President Tinubu has nothing to lose by setting him free.
The woman leader of the Eastern Judaism and Jewish Community, Mrs Ugochinyere Onuoha, urged President Tinubu not to allow Kanu to die in detention.
“We are asking for Kanu’s freedom and asking God to deliver him from the ordeal he is facing,” she said.
Meanwhile, a 12-year-old Michael Ndubuisi from Enugu State, went emotional while pleading that President Tinubu should not allow Kanu, who is also a Jewish worshiper, to die in custody.
Kanu has been in incarceration at the Abuja headquarters of the Department of State Services, DSS, since June 2021, when he was extraordinarily renditioned from Kenya.
The IPOB leader has been seeking a referendum for the people of South East and South South to determine whether or not they want to be autonomous.
