Ochaigha Onyemobi, a lawyer and human rights activist based in the United States, urged the Federal Government of Nigeria on Thursday to secure the release of detained Indigenous People of Biafra leader Nnamdi Kanu and other detainees, in order to alleviate palpable tensions in the country’s South-East region.
Onyemobi also lauded Anambra State Governor Prof. Charles Soludo for initiating peace efforts in the Nnamdi Kanu saga.
Kanu is on trial for alleged terrorism-related offences.
The activist made the suggestion in a statement titled ‘Request for Mazi Nnamdi Kanu and his co-accused in detention to be unconditionally released on bail’.
The statement read, “The Nigerian government is presently faced with multifaceted security problems across the country’s space.
“Concerted efforts, no doubt, are being deployed to tackle this menace.
“Sadly, the situation seems intractable and defiant of strategic interventions.
“Governments across the three levels: Federal, State and Local – necessarily need to adopt an effective quick-fix measures aimed at arresting the situation.
“It’s on this plank that, I must commend His Excellency, the Executive Governor of Anambra state, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo on his ongoing peace initiative in Anambra state.
He enjoined all stakeholders and supporters of peace in Anambra state to unite in quelling “the snowballing state of anarchy in the South-East”.
“Not a few of these leaders-of-thought believe the great role a freed Mazi Nnamdi Kanu would help in calling his IPOBians and followers to order.
“His presence would, to a great extent, unravel the riddle and mystery behind the identities of the unknown gunmen, the ESN, and other non-state actors stalking the South-East environs.
“It’s on the strength of the foregoing that I implore the Federal Government to leverage on its legal reach, to ensure an expeditious, judicial, unconditional bail for Mazi Nnamdi Kanu and his co- accused detainees.
“This will greatly douse the heightened tension in Igbo land.
The US lawyer, therefore, beckoned on other South-East governors to take a cue from their Anambra State counterpart in “adopting a dispassionate, but deliberate step at restoring peace in their domain”.