The Archbishop of Enugu Province Anglican Communion, Most Rev. Emmanuel Chukwuma has urged Ndigbo not to abandoned the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) leader, Nnamdi Kanu.
Chukwuma told journalists on Wednesday that Ndigbo should rally round Kanu as he go through the hurdles of trial over his agitation for self determination.
He explained that what he told a national daily on Tuesday on the arrest of Kanu was that going by the way social media news described how he was arrested, it was obvious his arrest and extradition to Nigeria was done not in accordance with international regulations.
He said that having engaged in agitation for the good of his people, Ndigbo should not deny or abandon him in this time of trial but support and pray that God sees him through.
He said, “We feel very sad and disturbed the way he was arrested. As I said before, what I was saying was that the way which he was arrested according to the social media, is particularly being condemned by us. A lot of news in the social media talking about how he was captured and I feel it is wrong for someone like Kanu to be captured that way or that they used something to lure him, we totally condemn it, it means they have captured him in a wrong way and that should be noted.
“Having now brought him to Nigeria, what we want to say is that we are not going to deny Kanu, Kanu is still for us and we will still continue to support him because the agitation he had was provoked by Buhari himself. When Buhari was doing a lot of appointments and selective negligence which provoked him to speak that we are marginalized and all that it was not with violence.
“So, if you are talking about 11-count-charge or whatever, you have to ask what caused it? And we are saying whatever be the case, we are watching and we are appealing to all our people in the East, everywhere to be calm and allow peace to reign, let see where the judgment is going.”
Chukwuma expressed sadness that that government could go abroad to arrest self determination agitator but refused to arrest bandits and terrorist herdsmen that had mad living in Nigeria a nightmare.
He said, “But if you are saying you have captured Kanu, my question is, how many bandits and how many of the Fulani herdsmen have you captured and prosecuted. So, you still find out that the selective negligence and their discriminations is continueing.
“If you are saying Kanu this, Kanu that, the people who are bandits and Fulani herdsmen have done worse things, but none of them have been arrested, none of them have been prosecuted, then you have pride to say you have arrested somebody from abroad but those who are at your nose you have not arrested them. I think is a failure on government security and we feel it is not right at all.”
He advised the government to ensure strict adherence to the rule of law and observance of fundamental human rights in handling of Kanu and the matter.
He said, “They should treat him with fairness and the judgment should be fair and they should not treat him as a criminal because he was agitating for something that is good for his people and we are not going to deny him. He is our son and we will continue to pray for him that government will listen to his agitations for these things to be sorted out, that is what we are saying.”
The Archbishop equally stressed that the selective negligence President Muhammadu Buhari adopted in making his numerous appointments which according to him did not recognize the South East as a bonafide geopolitical zone of the country necessitated the self determination agitation by Kanu and his group, IPOB.
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