The Ohanaeze Youth Council (OYC), an socio-cultural organization, has advised the President Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Government that threats of death or imprisoning agitators cannot quench the call for Biafra.
It maintained that dialogue and negotiation remains the viable means to end the issue.
The group warned the government to tread with caution over the trial of the leader of Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu.
In a statement made available to newsmen on Friday, the Igboayaka O. Igboayaka-led Ohanaeze Youth Council reminded the Nigerian government that from 1967 to 1970, a genocidal war deliberately executed with the aid of Britain, Russia, France, Germany and United States of America could not silence nor bury the agitation of Biafra, adding that anyone or government both at local or international level, thinking that crushing Nnamdi Kanu and IPOB will stop the agitation must be hallucinating.
The highest Igbo youth body called on Igbo leaders, present and former Governors, Senators, traditional and religious leaders to rally round Nnamdi Kanu for his safety and use the opportunity of his release to seek for the workable approach for political cum economic survival of neighbors in Nigeria political project.
The statement partly said, “the call for Nigeria’s unity is only a verbal gesture because the President Muhammadu Buhari-led federal government since 2015 is practically complimenting the effort of pro-Biafra groups through his pursuit of the Fulani agenda and open marginalization, injustice and killing of IPOB and other self-determination groups in Alaigbo,” he stated.
“No one throws away a child with the dirty bath of water, and an elder who rescued a perceived stubborn child has paved a new way of reasoning and the need to listen to the elders, therefore Ohanaeze Youth Council-OYC appeal to notable, noble and great men of Igbo extraction to rise up to the occasion and show their fatherly responsibility to save Nnamdi Kanu,” Igboayaka stated.
“Whether wrong or right, anybody thinking that Nnamdi Kanu is standing alone should interview any Igbo youth in all the communities of Igbo extraction, you will be shocked that Igbo youths still believe in Igwe Bu Ike and Onye Aghala Nwanne Ya. This evidential proof is a signal that Nnamdi Kanu could be used by a reasonable government to come into a dialogue or negotiation table, but an unreasonable government will use Nnamdi Kanu’s trial to put Nigeria in a situation more excruciating than the 1967-70 experience.
“At the end of every violent method, peaceful strategy is always used to restore peace and unity, advising, President Muhammadu Buhari and his team to quickly make a U-turn to give peaceful approach a chance to address Nnamdi Kanu’s issues, stressing that war failed in 1967-70 to address the Biafra issue. Also, judiciary approaches over the quest for self-determination and Kanu’s trial can’t address the issue, rather it will endanger the peace and unity of Nigeria”.
Recalls that Kanu was rearrested and repatriated from Kenya to Nigeria to continue treasonable felony charges preferred against by the Nigeria government
Against this backdrop, he was dragged before Justice Binta Nyako of an Abuja Federal High Court last month for the continuation of his trial.
Justice Nyako, after listening to Kanu and the government, remanded him in the custody of the Department of State Services, DSS.
Kanu had a few years ago jumped bail and escaped out of the country after the Nigerian military invaded his Afaraukwu country home in 2017.
Similarly, Senate Minority Leader, Enyinaya Abaribe, has insisted he would stand surety again for the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, given the same circumstances.
Abaribe stated this on Wednesday during an interview with journalists in Abuja.
The lawmaker explained that he stood surety for Kanu, because it was a condition imposed by the court.
According to Abaribe, the court ordered that one of the sureties must be a Senator, and as the Chairman of the Southeast Senators Caucus then, he had to offer himself.
