By Emma Ogbuehi
Ohanaeze Ndigbo Youth Wing Worldwide, has demanded the unconditional release of IPOB leader, Nnamdi Kanu and all Igbo youths held in various detention facilities across the nation.
The group made the demand in a release by its National Publicity Secretary, Chika Art Adiele.
Kanu, the leader of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra, has been in detention since July, following his re-arrest by the Department of State Services (DSS). He was arraigned at the Abuja Division of the Federal High Court, on Thursday, October 21. After pleading not guilty to the charges preferred against him, the trial judge, Justice Binta Murtala Nyako, adjourned hearing on the matter to November 10.
Ohanaeze youth wing insists however that the IPOB leader should be granted immediate release, arguing that the trial of Kanu amounts to putting the entire Igbo in the dock. According to group, the alleged offences for which Kanu is being tried, pale to nothing compared to the murderous activities of Boko Haram, Fulani herdsmen that the government is keeping blind eyes to.
“Ndigbo Youths, are asking to what end shall we continue to be on trial in a nation we laid down our lives to build? Are we not part of this nation? How do you pamper armed bandits and globally acclaimed, well-oiled terrorist organizations like Boko Haram and the audacious carnage of Fulani herdsmen and then turn around to use our son (Kanu) as “scapegoat”?
“Therefore; Ohanaeze Ndigbo Youth Wing Worldwide, unequivocally, demand the unconditional release of our son and brother Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, and all Igbo youths held in various detention facilities across the nation”, the statement stressed.
The group scoffed at one of the charges as amended, against Kanu in which he allegedly insulted the president, arguing that “to say it is one of the offenses that our beloved son and brother Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, was extraordinarily renditioned to Nigeria with all the trappings of presidential cover is a clear indication that Ndigbo Youths worldwide are on trial by proxy.
Ohanaeze youths further remarked that the amendment of charges against Kanu bears the semblance of paper tiger with a presidential gavel.
