I thought by now, Tinubu would ‘ve released Nnamdi Kanu – RULAAC boss

I thought by now, Tinubu would ‘ve released Nnamdi Kanu – RULAAC boss

By Steve Oko

Executive Director Rule of Law and Accountability and Advocacy Centre, RULAAC Mr Okechukwu Nwanguma, has expressed surprise that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, allowed the Leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPoB, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, “to remain in detention till now”.

Nwanguma who stated this while featuring on Ikengaonline town hall meeting, said his initial calculation was that President Tinubu, shortly after taking over powers, would have released Kanu as an olive branch to regain the confidence of the Igbo nation.

Speaking on the theme:”Nnamdi Kanu’s Continued Detention: IPoB and Insecurity in the South East”, Nwanguma”, said Kanu’s release ought to have been treated with urgency considering its huge impact on the peace of South East.

The RULAAC boss noted that Kanu was not arrested by the Tinubu administration but said Tinubu ought to have freed him as part of necessary steps towards national healing.

He attributed Kanu’s continued incarceration to the unwritten hatred against the Igbo and part of the ploy to keep the race down economically, politically and to foist insecurity in the South East.

He said:”I don’t know why the Nigerian government is so interested in keeping this guy under locks. During the Buhari administration, we knew that Buhari had a lot of grudge with the South East, especially for not getting enough votes and all those kind of stuff, and of course, with some of the rhetorics that Kanu used.

“So, it wasn’t so much of a surprise that Buhari wanted to keep him. But I was thinking that when President Tinubu, as soon as he comes in, the first olive branch that he would have spread to the Igbos, would be to release Nnamdi Kanu. Not even because of Kanu himself, but at least for what he represents and how his incarceration has impacted the entire South East region, both politically economically, and security-wise.

“But that never happened. So, my question is: why do you think they are so interested in just keeping him under lock? Is that just a way of telling South East that it doesn’t matter? Or is it probably as a way of just keeping us down, so that whether it’s now or in the future, we’ll be so down economically, and politically, to the extent that South East won’t be a challenge to anybody else or any other sub-national groups?

According to Nwanguma, Kanu is not alone in his agitations which he said, enjoys the support of majority of the Igbo nation. support

“The agitation by Nnamdi Kanu is not just the IPoB message. Every Igbo man seems to identify with the issues. The issues about the historical injustices, the neglect, the marginalization, and the deprivation of the Igbo man.

“So, it seems to me that there is an unwritten rule at the government house in Aso Rock that every administration that comes must keep the Igbo down. So, they inherit this hate against the Igbo man. That’s my honest view. And so, for Buhari, it was understandable. Buhari did not hide his hatred for the Igbo people. When he said:’treat them in the language they understand’, it was clear, we understood where he was coming from.

” I think that Tinubu inherited that hatred because in the last few weeks, people have been posting the old messages that Kanu had pushed out. So, I suspect that Tinubu, also has some personal grudge that he habours against him. But more generally, I think it’s also about the hate for the Igbo man.

“But the other thing I suspect is that it could also be because you can see that everything Tinubu is doing is about his political survival. It’s about politics. They think that releasing Kanu may affect their own political calculations. So, it is two things: they are happy to allow the Southeast to remain in turmoil; former militant leader, Asari Dokubo did confess that he was carrying out certain oppression in the Southeast. Nobody has investigated that. We don’t know what that was. All these are part of the conspiracy against the Igbo people.

“So, anything that will keep the Igbo down, and they know that continuing to keep Nnadi Kanu in detention will continue to sustain the violence and insecurity and underdevelopment in South East. The other one is their own politics. It’s about 2027. They think:If we release Nnadi Kanu, wouldn’t that affect our chances because people are going to rally around him again, and his voice may count in how the votes will go? So, I think it’s both the historical hatred against the Igbo, and politics.

Sharing this sentiment, Us-based medical practitioner and the Publisher of Ikengaonline, Dr Osmond Agbo, said it appeared ” there is some unwritten rules where the goal is to keep the Igbos down so that they will never rise to pose a challenge to anybody”.

He expressed shock that despite the negative impacts of Kanu’s detention on the entire South East region, the federal government, had not yet considered his release a thing of necessity.

” It’s still bogus that even with the effect that his (Kanu’s) continued detention has had on 40 million strong Southeasterners, he’s still incarcerated ”

Dr Agbo, also decried the indiscriminate checkpoints by security operatives on South East roads unlike other regions.

” Southeast is just basically a militarized zone where you have police and checkpoints at every nook and cranny. And just within some few centimeters of those checkpoints, there are some variety of criminal activities – kidnapping, ritual killing, and all those things happening.”

Agbo challenged security agencies to clear their names over allegations that their operatives lobby to be posted to the South East region where they easily make money from extortion.

” It’s been said that some of these security operatives lobby to be posted to the Southeast.”