A pressure group known as the All Igbo Youth Forum has warned that Igbo youths would boycott the 2027 general elections in Nigeria unless the leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, is released.
The National President of the Forum, Chinedu Obilor, issued the threat at a news briefing held at the secretariat of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, Abia State Council, in Umuahia on Tuesday.
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Mr Obilor said the group shelved its planned protest over Mr Kanu’s continued incarceration after discussing it with the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Benjamin Kalu.
He said Mr Kalu assured the group that discussions with President Bola Tinubu on the IPOB leader’s release were ongoing.
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“We believe the president will listen to the cry of Ndigbo and release Kanu,” he said.
Mr Obilor said the forum’s position remains unchanged and that they cannot leave Mr Kanu and be talking about 2027 elections.
He said the group would give the deputy speaker two more months to engage the president on Mr Kanu’s release.
He said it was the group’s resolve that he must take the demand for Mr Kanu’s release to the president urgently.
“If they fail, we will hold 10 10-million-man march to Abuja and dare them to jail all of us,” he said.
He wondered why other agitators and terror suspects were released, but Mr Kanu remained in custody.
“If they feel they will use Nnamdi Kanu to do politics, we will not agree.
“We’ll mobilise 10 million Igbo youths to march and tell the government we won’t vote if Kanu is not released,” Mr Obilor said.
The group said President Tinubu’s administration excluded the South-east in recent political appointments, describing it as “unacceptable”.
It spoke on the ongoing coalition by the opposition politicians, saying that “any coalition that won’t cede the presidential ticket to the south will not fly”.
It said the South supported the North for eight years under the late President Muhammadu Buhari and that the time was now ripe for equity.
Background
The IPOB leader, Mr Kanu, who is facing terrorism trial at the Federal High Court in Abuja, has been in detention since he was repatriated to Nigeria from Kenya in June 2021 under controversial circumstances.
IPOB is a group leading agitation for an independent state of Biafra, which it wants to be carved out from the South-east and some parts of the South-south of Nigeria.
The Nigerian government has accused IPOB of being responsible for the insecurity and killings in the South-east, but the group has repeatedly denied the accusation.
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The Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, and several Igbo leaders, including governors, have requested Mr Kanu’s release.
But the government has ignored their requests.
Mr Kanu was first arrested in 2015 under the administration of then-President Muhammadu Buhari.
The Court of Appeal, Abuja, on 13 October 2022, held that the IPOB leader was extraordinarily renditioned to Nigeria, and that the action was a flagrant violation of the country’s extradition treaty and also a breach of his fundamental human rights.
The court, therefore, struck out the terrorism charges filed against Mr Kanu by the Nigerian government and ordered his release from the SSS facility.
But the government refused to release the IPOB leader, insisting that he (Kanu) could be unavailable in subsequent court proceedings if released and that his release would cause insecurity in the South-east, where he comes from.
The government, through the office of the Attorney-General of the Federation, later appealed the court ruling and subsequently obtained an order staying the execution of the court judgement at the Supreme Court.
Delivering judgement on the appeal on 15 December 2023, the Supreme Court reversed the acquittal granted to Mr Kanu by the lower court and consequently ordered the continuation of his trial at the Federal High Court, Abuja.
On 19 June, the Nigerian government closed its case against the IPOB leader after the 5th prosecution witness was led in evidence and cross-examined by Mr Kanu’s lawyer, Onyechi Ikpeazu, before Justice James Omotosho of the Federal High Court in Abuja.
(NAN)
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