Igbo leaders appear divided over the government move against Radio
Biafra Director,Nnamdi Kanu Nnamdi’s lawyer,Mr. Egechukwu Obetta, told Sunday Vanguard
on the phone, last Wednesday, that the DSS has not granted him access
to his client who is also the leader of the Indigenous People of
Biafra,IPOD, despite a court order allowing him access to his lawyer and
physician.
The magistrate court before which he was arraigned had granted Kanu
bail last Monday in the sum of N2 million with a surety (civil servant)
of grade level 16 in like sum.
President General, apex Igbo socio-cultural group,Ohanaeze Ndigbo,
Chief Gary Enwo-Igariwey, when contacted on the phone,declined comments
on the self-determination movement, saying, “I am at the airport on my
way to South-Africa. The issue is a very sensitive one. I do not want to
make casual statements on it. I will be back next week”.
A former Secretary General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo,Chief Nduka Eya, echoed the same sentiment to Sunday Vanguard.
Eya said: “The young people who were born after and during the civil
war do not know the history of Nigeria. The civil war between Nigeria
and Biafra ended in 1970. We are now a sovereign state of Nigeria.
“But there is nothing wrong if a group agitates for a state but you
cannot do so by confrontation in a sovereign state of Nigeria. It is
treason. Biafra ended with the civil war in 1970. The Federal Government
should detain and charge him(Nnamdi) for treason. I am an Igbo man and a
Nigerian. You cannot be agitating for a state within Nigeria adopting
confrontation.
“When the leader of the Movement for the Actualization of Sovereign
State of Biafra,MASSOB,Chief Ralph Uwazuruike’s mother died,I was then
the Secretary General of Onahaeze and pleaded for his release from
detention to enable him bury his mother.
“I was among a private delegation, led by the late Senator Uche
Chukwumerije, to Uwazuruike. We told Uwazuruike that `you cannot be
talking of a sovereign Biafra inside a sovereign Nigeria’. Nnamdi should
be charged for treason but his undue detention without charge cannot be
supported.”
Another pan-Igbo group,Enugu Unity Forum,EUF,frowned at any move to
secede without employing constitutional means, adding that such
confrontation will amount to treason.
President,EUF,Chief Tahil Ochil, said, “The law should take its
course. It is not a criminal case and as such is bailable. He should not
be detained more than the law prescribes. The Biafra struggle should
not be confrontational. They should follow the dictates of the law. They
should look at how Sudan broke up. As an Igbo man,I will be part of
struggle if it is done constitutionally. But if it is done by force,I
cannot be part of it.
“The Nigerian government should look at why agitations are rife from
the North to South-west and South-south/South-east. They should go back
to the National Conference report which addressed these issues that
trigger ethnic unrest. Apart from Biafra,the Yoruba, through Odua
people, are calling for their our state. The Boko-Haram issue in the
North is a call by the northerners for secession. The Federal Government
should implement the Confab report which addressed the injustices
plaguing the nation.
Source;Vanguard
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