LThe President-General of Ohanaeze Ndi Igbo, Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, has said that the Igbo people in the country have accepted President Bola Tinubu as the constitutionally elected President of Nigeria while appealing for the release of the leader of the deposed Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu.
Iwuayanwu said this during an interview with Arise Television on Sunday.
The PUNCH reports that IPOB has described Kanu’s continuous detention as “unconstitutional”, saying that self-determination is legal as supported by the United Nations laws and by the Africa Union Charter while calling for a referendum.
However, according to the Ohanaeze Ndi Igbo President-General, his consultation with other Igbo people affirmed his notion of their acceptance of Tinubu as the president of the country and as the one who could help them release the incarcerated Kanu for peace to reign in the South-East.
He said, “I, as a leader of Igbos, after consultation with my people, we all agree that there was no reason why Nnamdi Kanu should be incarcerated, no reason why he should be detained.
“He didn’t serve any risk. Rather, his release will help Nigeria and will help the security agencies to differentiate who is a criminal and who is a very honest and dedicated Nigerian. Many criminals hide under the fact that Nnamdi Kanu is in detention and continues to unleash heinous crimes on our people in the southeast.
“As you have already noticed, some people stay outside Nigeria and, from time to time, mobilise armed robbers, armed gunmen, even declare sit at home. And, of course, you know our people are mercantile people, people who are commercial.”
Speaking further, Iwuanyanwu said the sit-at-home order is affecting business in Igbo land and is heavily inflicting hardship on the people, adding that if Nnamdi Kanu is released, normalcy will be restored.
“The whole of our people, the political class, the religious class, all of them. And as a leader of Igbos, part of my mandate is to see that Nnamdi Kanu is released. And I have made the appeal to the President. I’ve even sought an appointment to meet the president with some leaders of the South-East, and the president has been very busy.
“I believe that once he’s free, he will invite us because he has been busy attending to so many national and international matters. He will see us because, no doubt, South-East, the Igbos, we are part of Nigeria, we are committed to Nigeria, we believe in Nigeria, we have, over the years, made contributions to the building of Nigeria. So, if we cry to our leader, the president, to say this is our problem, I believe he will definitely listen to us.”
He maintained, “Igbos in all the various states in Nigeria have now accepted Tinubu as our president, and we have pledged, and I say that on behalf of our people, that we are going to give Tinubu every support. But we expect Tinubu to look at this problem we have. We expect him to solve this problem which all of us are talking about.”
Fielding questions on the recent verdict of the Supreme Court on the Terrorism trial for Kanu, the President-General said, “The Supreme Court judgment doesn’t bother us because the Judge is supposed to interpret the law and carry our justice.
“We actually didn’t appeal to the Supreme Court; the appeal we made was to the President. Our President, His Excellency Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, that’s the person to whom we actually made the appeal, and I believe that our President will realise that if all Igbos are saying one thing, then there must be something in it.
“And besides, Nnamdi Kanu has openly renounced the activities of people who have been kidnapping, murdering, and killing people in the South-East in the disguise of Nnamdi Kanu’s detention.
“Nnamdi Kanu has cautioned that they should stop. He said this openly, and we know that. That is why we are saying that he should be released because we don’t want people to continue to commit crimes under the guise that Nnamdi Kanu is in detention.
“So, I still believe that our president will yield to our request and release him so that now we can now differentiate between those who were actually fighting for him and those who were just criminals,” he added.