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| Leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu |
The leadership of the Ohanaeze Ndigbo Youth Council has pleaded with President Muhammadu Buhari to intervene in the order for the arrest of the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu.
A Federal High Court in Abuja on Thursday ordered the arrest of Kanu and directed that his trial on charges of treasonable felony should proceed in his absence. The court also revoked the bail it granted Kanu in 2017.
However, the President-General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Youth Council, Okechukwu Isiguzoro, and Secretary General, Okwu Nnabuike, in a statement on Saturday, said such action might destabilise the fragile peace that had returned to the South-East region.
The Ohanaeze Ndigbo youths noted that Kanu’s first arrest witnessed widespread instability in the region, calling on President Buhari to pardon Biafra agitators as a way of showing compassion to Igbo.
The statement read in part, “The leadership of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Youth Council Worldwide received the pronouncement and re-arrest order of IPOB leader, Nnamdi Kanu, by a Federal High Court in Abuja with rude shock and disbelief.
“Weighing the implications of such action, it may destabilise the fragile peace that have returned to the southern part of Nigeria, especially the South-East and South-South after the sad experiences witnessed during his first arrest and subsequently the untimely death of innocent Igbo youths and women that characterised his first arrest and detention.
“And there is no need to escalate the tension already established in the South-East over the menace of herdsmen ravaging parts of Igboland. There is no need to compound our loss by allowing Nnamdi Kanu return now until Igbo Christians and Traditional leaders intervene in the process.
“We are pleading with President Buhari as the father of the nation to grant presidential pardon to Nnamdi Kanu, as a way of showing compassion to Ndigbo.’’
The Ndigbo group noted that there was no better time to re-unite all parts of the country than now.
