HURIWA To Senate: Ekpa’s Extradition Demand Is Half-hearted

Civil rights advocacy group, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, (HURIWA) has described as half-hearted and hypocritical, the demand by the Senate that Finland-based pro-Biafran agitator, Simon Ekpa, be extradited and prosecuted for the illegal Monday sit-at-home in the South East geopolitical zone.

The group said this is coupled with the attendant violence, killings and gargantuan economic losses recorded in Imo, Enugu, Anambra, Ebonyi and Abia states.

While wondering why the Senate failed to demand immediate freedom for the illegally detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) Nnamdi Kanu whose charges by immediate past President Muhammadu Buhari, were dismissed and Nnamdi Kanu ordered to be released by the Court of Appeal.

HURIWA, in a statement by its national coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, however, said the upper chamber must also use its legislative power to compel the executive led by President Bola Tinubu to arrest and prosecute former Niger Delta agitator, Asari Dokubo for illegal possession of firearms and threat to Igbo people on viral videos.

The group said Dokubo must be arrested for operating a secret army which he is using to oppress the Nigerian citizenry despite the properly constituted and constitutionally recognised Nigerian Army.

The red chamber had on Wednesday, condemned the Monday sit-at-home in the South East and asked the federal government to collaborate with the Finnish Government and extradite Simon Ekpa.

The upper chamber also resolved to invite the minister of foreign affairs (when appointed) and relevant stakeholders to carry out thorough investigation as well as bring other sponsors of the act to book.

The unconstitutional order was declared in 2021 to press home demands for the release of IPOB leader, Nnamdi Kanu, who is being detained by the Department of State Services (DSS) and prosecuted for terrorism-related charges.

Onwubiko said, “The Senate will be deemed to be populated with opportunistic anarchists and hypocrites if they fail to use the template applied to Simon Ekpa to demand the immediate arrest of Asari Dokubo and the disbandment of his private Army.

“The extradition of Simon Ekpa is what we had advocated for persistently and the Senate’s call is a welcome development. However, Asari Dokubo must not be spared but be arrested and the security agencies must immediately put an end to the barbaric killings and unprecedented orgy of violence turning the South-East geopolitical zone into a bloody field.”