By Jude Michael
The Deputy National President, Ohanaeze ndi Igbo, Chief Damian Okeke Ogene, has said the organization is praying and depending on divine intervention now for the release of the leader of Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.
Chief Ogene, who disclosed this in Awka recently while speaking as a guest in a media programme, stated that the apex Igbo geopolitical organization had done all it could so that the IPOB leader would be released only for the Federal Government turned a deaf ear to the organization’s pleadings.
Ogene wondered why a man who committed no crime could be incarcerated for five years and counting, despite all court orders in his favour.
According to him, ‘Those holding Nnamdi Kanu came to understand that all Igbos had for Kanu the same love they had for Ojukwu, and now determined to hold him so as to continue to make the Igbos unhappy.
‘Supposing the Igbos had turned their back against him, and said if they wanted to kill him, let them do so, they would have released him,’ the embittered Ohanaeze leader said.
He further asked, ‘Have you seen where a person is arrested, and detained, but a governor of a state begged for his release that he (the governor) would surety for him?
‘Igboho did everything; he was sent on exile, but now he has been forgiven.
‘Boko Haram members in 200, 300, and more, were arrested and released; those imprisoned were also released, but a simple man who was not seen with even one gun in his hand, was arrested, not even in Nigeria, but in another country.
‘Courts in Nigeria acquitted him up to Appeal Court, but the Supreme Court supports that he would continue to be in trial.
‘In a country where one person who was involved in a coup has been in trial, five, six years – can you say our judiciary is functioning? It is not.’
He recalled that some prominent Igbo people, including the first Aviation Minister in the country, the late Chief Mbazulike Amaechi, the only living Minister of the First Republic then, had begged, but former President Buhari did not do anything.
‘Now, we are praying to God; we are depending on God’s Intervention,’ he said.
Ogene however expressed belief that if Nnamdi Kanu was released today, the issue of insecurity in South East would go.
The Ohanaeze helmsman further expressed confidence in Kanu’s prophecies and courage, describing him as a true son of the Igbo Nation.
‘Looking at what is inside Nnamdi, to me, he is a prophet. All the things he said from the beginning, including about the recent general elections, happened.
‘Then, some Nigerians saw that he has vision; Igbo people now saw that this is a true son of Igbo that has courage, then everybody backs him,’ Ogene said.
