Nnamdi Kanu: Igbo youths threaten to boycott 2027 elections

“We consider the president will hearken to the cry of Ndigbo and launch Kanu.”

A stress group often known as the All Igbo Youth Discussion board has warned that Igbo youths would boycott the 2027 basic elections in Nigeria until the chief of the proscribed Indigenous Folks of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, is launched.

The Nationwide President of the Discussion board, Chinedu Obilor, issued the menace at a information briefing held on the secretariat of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, Abia State Council, in Umuahia on Tuesday.

Mr Obilor mentioned the group shelved its deliberate protest over Mr Kanu’s continued incarceration after discussing it with the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Benjamin Kalu.

He mentioned Mr Kalu assured the group that discussions with President Bola Tinubu on the IPOB chief’s launch had been ongoing.

“We consider the president will hearken to the cry of Ndigbo and launch Kanu,” he mentioned.

Mr Obilor mentioned the discussion board’s place stays unchanged and that they can not go away Mr Kanu and be speaking about 2027 elections.

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He mentioned the group would give the deputy speaker two extra months to interact the president on Mr Kanu’s launch.

He mentioned it was the group’s resolve that he should take the demand for Mr Kanu’s launch to the president urgently.

“In the event that they fail, we are going to maintain 10 10-million-man march to Abuja and dare them to jail all of us,” he mentioned.

He questioned why different agitators and terror suspects had been launched, however Mr Kanu remained in custody.

“In the event that they really feel they are going to use Nnamdi Kanu to do politics, we is not going to agree.

“We’ll mobilise 10 million Igbo youths to march and inform the federal government we received’t vote if Kanu shouldn’t be launched,” Mr Obilor mentioned.

The group mentioned President Tinubu’s administration excluded the South-east in current political appointments, describing it as “unacceptable”.

It spoke on the continued coalition by the opposition politicians, saying that “any coalition that received’t cede the presidential ticket to the south is not going to fly”.

It mentioned the South supported the North for eight years below the late President Muhammadu Buhari and that the time was now ripe for fairness.

Background
The IPOB chief, Mr Kanu, who’s dealing with terrorism trial on the Federal Excessive Court docket in Abuja, has been in detention since he was repatriated to Nigeria from Kenya in June 2021 below controversial circumstances.

IPOB is a bunch main agitation for an impartial state of Biafra, which it desires to be carved out from the South-east and a few components of the South-south of Nigeria.

The Nigerian authorities has accused IPOB of being chargeable for the insecurity and killings within the South-east, however the group has repeatedly denied the accusation.

The Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, and several other Igbo leaders, together with governors, have requested Mr Kanu’s launch.

However the authorities has ignored their requests.

Mr Kanu was first arrested in 2015 below the administration of then-President Muhammadu Buhari.

The Court docket of Appeal, Abuja, on 13 October 2022, held that the IPOB chief was terribly renditioned to Nigeria, and that the motion was a flagrant violation of the nation’s extradition treaty and in addition a breach of his basic human rights.

The courtroom, due to this fact, struck out the terrorism prices filed towards Mr Kanu by the Nigerian authorities and ordered his launch from the SSS facility.

However the authorities refused to launch the IPOB chief, insisting that he (Kanu) might be unavailable in subsequent courtroom proceedings if launched and that his launch would trigger insecurity within the South-east, the place he comes from.

The federal government, by way of the workplace of the Legal professional-Normal of the Federation, later appealed the courtroom ruling and subsequently obtained an order staying the execution of the courtroom judgement on the Supreme Court docket.

Delivering judgement on the enchantment on 15 December 2023, the Supreme Court docket reversed the acquittal granted to Mr Kanu by the decrease courtroom and consequently ordered the continuation of his trial on the Federal Excessive Court docket, Abuja.

On 19 June, the Nigerian authorities closed its case towards the IPOB chief after the fifth prosecution witness was led in proof and cross-examined by Mr Kanu’s lawyer, Onyechi Ikpeazu, earlier than Justice James Omotosho of the Federal Excessive Court docket in Abuja.

(NAN)