An Igbo interest group, Voice from the East, VEAST, has called on the Federal Government of Nigeria, to without further delay, release the leader of Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu from detention.
The group posited that IPOB was a freedom fighting group seeking a referendum for self-determination and not a violent organization that should be labelled a terrorist organization.
The Convener of VEAST, Comrade Kindness Jonah made the plea during an interview with press men in Enugu.
Jonah said that he was concurring with the Noble Laureate, Prof. Wole Sonyinka, who recently called on the Federal Government to heed the United Nation’s call that Kanu should be released unconditionally from detention because he did not anything worthy of incarceration but was only leading a freedom campaign for self-rule and as such should not be seen as a terrorist neither his organization be seen as a terrorist organization.
According to Jonah, Soyinka pointed out that whereas Myetti Allah and the Fulani herdsmen who carry arms and have been maiming the people are left loose, there was no reason why a freedom fighting group should be seen differently unless they are doing it out of animosity because of where they are coming from.
“According to the UN, people have right to fight for self-rule and it is not a crime. Prof. Soyinka had posited that people that carry guns are not labelled terrorists but freedom fighters are being labelled a terrorist organization. We are therefore towing the line of Prof. Soyinka that the Federal Government should remove the terrorism tag from IPOB because IPOB is fighting for a referendum.
“IPOB does not carry gun and good a thing that the United Nations has called on the Federal Government to release Nnamdi Kanu. They should release Nnamdi Kanu without conditions because he is a freedom fighter. We are also calling on the Federal Government to remove the tag of terrorism from IPOB,” Jonah declares.