Life Jail Verdict: Okorie Seeks Tinubu’s Pardon For Nnamdi Kanu

The founding National Chairman of the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA), Chief Chekwas Okorie, has urged President Bola Tinubu to immediately invoke his presidential power to grant convicted leader of proscribed Indigenous People Of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu a pardon.

This, Okorie pleaded with the president to consider, without allowing the case to proceed to the appellate and Suprem courts.

Okorie, who is the current National Chairman of Igbo Agenda Dialogue, made the appeal in his reaction to Thursday verdict of a Federal High Court in Abuja, which sentenced Kanu to life Imprisonment for terrorism.

He noted that there are several flash points at this time, adding that the country is in the eye of the storm in the comity of nations.

The renowned Igbo leader maintained that the ball is now in President Tinubu’s court, insisting that how he responds to the moment will determine the direction of the matter.

“I feel sad that after all the legal rigmarole in the matter of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, it has ended up in his being sentenced to a life imprisonment.

“I had severally maintained that Mazi Nnamdi Kanu’s agitation for the self-determination of the Igbo people by exiting Nigeria was not only political but within his fundamental right of freedom of expression.

“I advised Nigerian governments that the legal process would not resolve this matter. It can be said that Nnamdi Kanu’s crusade is an offshoot of Chief Ralph Uwazurike’s MASSOB.”

Okorie further added that Kanu’s trial was fundamentally flawed, in view of the nature of his extraordinary rendition from Kenya.