By JOHN NWOKOCHA, Abuja

Amid calls on the President Muhammadu Buhari to comply with the Court of Appeal judgment and release Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People’s of Biafra (IPOB) elder statesman, chief Chukwuemeka Ezeife (Okwadike) and some prominent Igbo leaders of Ohanaeze in Abuja are planning to restrategise on the best approach to secure Kanu’s release from detention, News Express has learnt.

A credible source said the leaders would be meeting in Abuja today, October 25, to consider among other issues, immediate release of Kanu.

Other issues on their agenda are, 2023 presidency and other sundry national questions.

Demand for the release of the IPOB leader has surged after the Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja pronounced Kanu free and discharged him of any charges against him by the federal government of Nigeria.

However, despite the judgment of the Appeal Court, Kanu is still being detained in the DSS facility causing his lawyers, Ohanaeze Ndigbo and concerned groups to ask the government to urgently release him.

Kanu’s continued detention has equally attracted concerns of the UN, Afenifere and MBEF, who have joined in the call for his immediate release.

Recall that Igbo leaders, including Chief Amaechi Mbazulike, elderstatesman and vocal critic of the continued detention of Kanu, are seeking political solution to the problem. The leaders had planned to meet with Buhari to press for the release of the IPOB leader.

Also, adding its voice to the demand for Buhari to obey court order on Kanu’s freedom from detention, a Pan-Igbo socio-political pressure organisation, the South East Revival Group (SERG) has cautioned President Muhammadu Buhari administration not to continue with what it described as, “victimisation and exclusion policy of the Federal Government against Igbos in Nigeria.”

The group attributed the insecurity in the region to hopelessness on the part of young people in the zone.

In a statement signed by its President and National Coordinator, Chief Willy Ezugwu, the SERG said that the delay in releasing the leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Mazi Nnamdi Kanu is, “not an action taken in the national interest.”

According to the group, “Before the Court of Appeal ruling discharging Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, President Muhammadu Buhari administration got the legal advice of the United Nations which demanded for the unconditional release of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu based on the violent extradition of the IPOB leader by Nigerian government from Kenya to face terrorism trial in Nigeria.

“Like the Court of Appeal, the United Nations, UN Human Rights Council Working Group on Arbitrary Detention indicted both Nigeria and Kenya Governments for the arrest and extraordinary rendition, torture and continued detention of Kanu without due process.

“We recall that the UN had asked Nigerian Government for the “immediate release Kanu unconditionally” and pay him adequate compensations for the arbitrary violation of his fundamental human rights.

“The UN also recommended that government officials responsible for the torture meted to the IPOB leader be investigated and punished.

“The UN further directed Nigeria to report back within six months of the transmission of its opinions on Kanu’s matter, steps taken to comply with all the recommendations thereof.

“The United Nations had referred the case of Kanu’s torture to Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment for further consideration.

“The 16-page report dated July 20, 2022 was adopted on April 4 by the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention at its 93rd session, held between March 30 – April 8, 2022 and reportedly communicated its recommendations to the Federal government of Nigeria on or about.

“We're worried that the current refusal of the Federal Government to first obey the order of the Court of Appeal on Mazi Nnamdi Kanu is already being seen as kidnapping of a citizen.

“This will definitely worsen the security situation in South East as similar extrajudicial action of the Federal Government which led to the murder of the leader of the Boko Haram Islamic sect, Yusuf Mohammed, by agents of the state has been widely acknowledged to be the immediate cause of the extraordinary escalation of violence in the North East, which Nigeria is yet to recover from.

“Since the arrest and detention of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, the South East has become a theatre of blood and gruesome killings by state and non-state actors in Igbo land is unprecedented.

“The Igbos have been raising alarm on marginalization of the South East but turning the zone into a butcher zone by the actions and inactions of the Federal Government of Nigeria in recent time is the worst since the civil war.

“We therefore urge President Muhammadu Buhari to call the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami to order as it is globally acknowledged that injustice brew anarchy is every society.

“If the Federal Government can order the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to first call off their strike in obedience to the order of the Industrial Court before ASUU could be allowed to appeal the judgment, what is the justification for not obeying the order of the Court of Appeal on Mazi Nnamdi Kanu?

“The extraordinary rendition of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu was considered and an injustice and a violation of his fundamental human rights by both the United Nations and the Court of Appeal.

“We therefore urge the Nigerian government to make hay while the sun shines and free Nnamdi Kanu in accordance with the express order of the Court of Appeal as this will mitigate perceptions of bias, exclusion and injustice against the South East region over the years”.

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