A request has been made to President Muhammadu Buhari to allow the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, to address the media about the controversies surrounding the country’s southeast sit-at-home order.
WITHIN NIGERIA reports that the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) made the call to the president in light of recent attacks in some states of the southeast region by gunmen claiming to be enforcing a five-day sit-at-home order issued by a disciple of Kanu, Simon Ekpa, who is based in Finland.
However, the IPOB leader has denied any connection to Ekpa and the recent killings in the region as a result of the order.
To that end, HURIWA has asked that Kanu be allowed to physically address the media in order to reaffirm his position and lift the sit-in order.
In a statement signed by its national coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko, the rights group maintained that the president should allow the IPOB leader to comment on a live television broadcast to clear up the confusion surrounding the sit-at-home order and restore calm to the region.
HURIWA stated that Kanu’s speech would dispel “some persons loyal to Simon Ekpa’s suspicions that Nnamdi Kanu did not order an end to the economically stagnant sit-at-home order in the southeast of Nigeria.”
The group submitted that;
The President should let Mazi Nnamdi Kanu speak to Igbo people to affirm or deny the report by his lawyers that he had ordered an end to the Sit-at-home order which one Mr Simon Ekpa an alleged follower of the detained leader disputed and ordered for forceful implementation of the so-called Sit-at-home order.
Secondly, just as was done in Ukraine, President Muhammadu Buhari should democratise arms licences so sane adult Nigerians can bear AK-47 and AK-49.
If President Muhammadu Buhari is not the sponsor of the chaos in the South-East then let his government adopt a pragmatic approach such as permitting that Kanu addresses the media as a matter of extreme urgency to put an end to these killings.
HURIWA also blamed the security agencies, the Department of State Services (DSS) and the police force in the southeast for their failure to tackle the recent bloody attacks on innocent citizens effectively.
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