•Incarcerated IPOB leader, Nnamdi Kanu (C)
Elder Statesman, Chief Chekwas Okorie, said yesterday that the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, has suffered grievously, restating his appeal to President Bola Tinubu to facilitate his release and the release of other prisoners of conscience in the country from further incarceration.
He stated that since 2015, Kanu has suffered grievously from his extraordinary rendition from Kenya on the 27th of June, 2021, stressing that with the current situation of the case, there is a tendency that it would be re-instituted afresh, reports The Guardian.
In a statement he sent to our correspondent in Enugu, Okorie said: “It is with the utmost sense of responsibility and patriotism that I passionately appeal to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to seize the moment and grant or facilitate the release of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu and his fellow prisoners of conscience from further incarceration in Nigerian dungeons.
“I am persuaded by the new opportunity provided by the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Hon. Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, whose administrative intervention prompted the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court to reassign the protracted suit first filed by the Federal Government against Mazi Nnamdi Kanu on the 23rd of November, 2015, in an Abuja Magistrate Court. Since 2015, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu has suffered grievously, including his extraordinary rendition from Kenya on the 27th of June 2021.
“It is a known fact that by the operation of the law, this matter will be re-instituted afresh. This window provides President Tinubu the leverage to direct the Attorney General and Minister of Justice to enter a nolle prosequi in the Nnamdi Kanu matter to discharge and acquit him and bring closure to his vexatious incarceration.
“I appreciate the fact that President Tinubu inherited the liability of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu’s unjustified detention, but since government is a continuum, the onus is on the president to bring this matter to an end. There is no doubt that the case of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu is a huge local and international embarrassment to Nigeria. Mazi Nnamdi Kanu has become the symbol of the struggle of the Igbo nation for equity, justice, and fairness.
“I venture to state unequivocally that the average Igbo person in Nigeria and in the diaspora feels the pain of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu’s unjustified continued suffering for simply speaking out for his people. The economic and security stability and gains the freedom of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu will bring to the Southeast geopolitical zone are unquantifiable. President Tinubu may never imagine the several political mileage he will gain by granting Mazi Nnamdi Kanu freedom at this time. I enjoin President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to consider this appeal with dispassion and compassion.”
