The World Igbo Congress (WIC), the umbrella body of Igbo people resident in the United States of America and Canada, has unequivocally condemned the continued incarceration of Citizen Nnamdi Kanu by the Nigerian Security Agency, the Department of State Services (DSS), despite the unambiguous order of the Abuja Federal High Court Judge, Justice Adeniyi Ademola, on December 17, 2015, releasing Kanu on bail unconditionally by ruling that the continued extra-judicial detention of Kanu, without trial, violated Section 158 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act of 2015 and Section 35 of the Nigerian 1999 Constitution, as amended.

The WIC made this known in a statement jointly signed by its Chairman, Ichie Dr. Larry Udorji, Secretary General, Chief Cyril Nwaguru, and Public Relations Officer, Chief Jimmy Asiegbu.

The group unequivocally condemns President Buhari’s government use of Security agents and members of the Nigerian armed forces to suppress the rights of citizens to freedom of speech and assembly as evidenced in the recent and repeated slaughters of innocent members of Citizen Kanu’s Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) protesters in Onitsha, Anambra State and the recent killings of hundreds of members of Sheik Ibrahim El-Zakzaky’s Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN) following a procession in Zaria, Kaduna State.

“Citizen Kanu,” it noted in the statement sent to News Express by e-mail, “has been in detention since October 17, 2015, after he was arrested by the DSS following his arrival in Nigeria from the United Kingdom. The DSS has illegally detained Kanu since October 17, 2015 despite the fact that he met the conditions of his bail from Magistrate Shuaibu Usman of the Chief Magistrate Court, Wuse Zone 2, Abuju, in October. Magistrate Usman on Wednesday, December 16, 2015, struck out all counts of Criminal Conspiracy and Ownership of an Unlawful Society brought against Kanu.”

The statement made it clear that “The WIC is troubled by the recent reports attributed to President Buhari, requiring Citizen Kanu to denounce his campaign for the actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra as a precondition for his release, in contravention of the Courts’ orders and Citizen Kanu's constitutionally guaranteed right to freedom of expression, enshrined in Section 39 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigerian, as amended.”

WIC expressing its disappointment, recalled that, “President Buhari, who once claimed that the reason he refused to interfere in the prosecution of the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki on 13 counts of False Declaration before the Code of Conduct Tribunal was because of his deference for the doctrine of Separation of Powers which prohibits him from meddling with the Judiciary, cannot continue to meddle with the Judicial pronouncement, releasing Citizen Nnamdi Kanu unconditionally. The government’s continued defiance on this matter, despite judicial pronouncements to the contrary, will only spell doom for the Nigerian polity.”

For peace to reign in the country, WIC calls on President Buhari to address the festering and perennial inequity against the Igbo in Nigeria since the end of the civil war, which has since assumed a disproportionate impunity, since he was sworn in as the President of Nigeria on May 29, 2015.

The Congress restating its resolution at the WIC 21st Annual Convention in Los Angeles, California, which has Citizen Nnamdi Kanu as the Keynote Speaker, and WIC Former Secretary General, Attorney C. C. Chikezie, as moderator maintains “that Nigeria will never be ‘one nation with destiny’ as she claims if the country refuses to listen and address the legitimate discontent of the Igbo, which remains the undercurrent fuelling these present agitations.”

The WIC says it “is committed to a peaceful and democratic solution to the myriad of Nigerian problems which Nigeria, unfortunately, can no longer continue to sweep under the carpet.”

•Photo shows Nnamdi Kanu.

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