Apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, has urged the Federal Government to release the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu, as a Christmas gift for the South-East region.
It was gathered that Chief Damian Okeke-Ogene, the Vice-President of Ohanaeze, conveyed this request on behalf of the group in an interview with PUNCH, on Sunday, emphasizing that failure to release Kanu would dampen the hopes of the people this Christmas.
The group’s Vice President, dismissed claims that prominent Igbo people, including governors of the region, were behind Kanu’s continued detention.
He said: “We don’t want to dwell much on the politics about the release of Kanu. If he is released on December 15, it is long overdue because competent courts of jurisdiction have on two occasions found him not guilty and also released him, but till now, nothing was done about it.
“So, we hope that the Supreme Court will equally do justice to it with the expectation that every Igbo man is expecting that President Bola Tinubu should know that the money and lives being wasted on the issue are not worth it. And he should, therefore, set the man free as a Christmas gift to the South-East if he truly wants peace to return to the region.
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“The President should emulate former Presidents Umaru Yar’Adua and Goodluck Jonathan, who used the carrot and stick approach to stop the issue of militancy in the Niger Delta region. The average Igbo person is also facing the same situation.
“Kanu should be a free man from December 15 and anything short of that has dashed the hope of the whole of the people of South-East this Christmas. If he is not released, it will be a black Christmas in the region.
