The federal government has been implored to 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.
The appeal was made by a group, Concerned Igbo Citizens Council (CICC) at the weekend in a statement signed by its interim national coordinator and interim national secretary, Comrade Ukachukwu Anaele Obioha and Mazi James Uke Okorie 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 said the continued detention of Kanu and hundreds of Igbo youths over IPOB activities while their Yoruba counterparts have been granted reprieve by the present administration gives ‘an unsavory ethnic and sectional coloration’ to the federal government’s action.
In addition, the group urged the Department of State Services (DSS), Police and National Human Rights Commission, NHRC, to, as a matter of urgency, commence investigation and compilation of list of those killed, maimed and unlawfully incarcerated for self-determination agitations across board.
“It has become most expedient and imperative to call on President Bola Tinubu to extend the amnesty he granted to Sunday Igboho and Omoyele Sowore to other Yoruba youths held for supporting the agitations of the duo.
“We demand also for 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 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 which claimed it is out to mobilise Nigerians across ethnic lines to stand up and assert their rights to a free society called 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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