*HURIWA urges appeals to Buhari to allow Kanu to address media on suspension of sit-at-home
Leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Mazi Nnamdi Kanu’s counsel, Aloy Ejimakor has said his client has expressed sadness with the recent attacks and killings that happened across the South-East region in connection with the botched sit-at-home exercise.
This is even as Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), has appealed to President Mohammadu Buhari to allow Kanu to address media on suspension of sit-at-home,
Ejimakor disclosed in a tweet on his Twitter page on Monday that Kanu asked him to condemn the attacks.
Ejimakor’s hometown in Urualla, Ideato North Local Government Area of Imo State was reportedly invaded by armed men who set a market ablaze, destroyed property and attacked his kinsmen on Friday.
Armed men attack my hometown, Nnamdi Kanu’s lawyer Ejimakor laments
Gunmen killed Nollywood actor, Osita Iheme’s brother in Imo
Again, Nnamdi Kanu urges ‘Biafrans’ to ignore 5-day sit-at-home order.
Iheme’s elder brother, Prince Iheme was killed by unknown gunmen who attacked Owerri, Mbaitoli and other areas on Friday.
The Commissioner for Solid Minerals in the state, Martin Eke was also injured by the assailants.
On Saturday, many were injured when gunmen attacked the Labour Party’s rally in Okposi, Ohaozara local government area of Ebonyi state.
Ejimakor said he visited Kanu on Monday in the custody of the Department of State Services, Abuja and he (Kanu) received the news with sadness.
“I had a visitation with Mazi Nnamdi Kanu today. With profound sadness, he received news of the staggered attacks of past few days across Southeast, including the one at my hometown.
“He asked me to strongly condemn the attacks on his behalf and convey his comfort to all the victims,” Ejimakor wrote.
The recent attacks in the Southeast region cannot be unconnected with the sit-at-home exercise called for by Kanu’s self-acclaimed disciple, Simon Ekpa, to be observed from 9 – 14 December.
Despite counter statements by IPOB’s spokesperson, Emma Powerful and the apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, the boycott of commercial activities was enforced in the region.
Following a series of skirmishes and organised violence and attacks masterminded by some armed supporters of the Finland-based Simon Ekpa targeting Igbo people going about their legitimate businesses, Presiden Buhari has been asked to let Mazi Kanu personally address the media affirming and categorically confirming the suspension of the sit-at-home order.
HURIWA has also criticised the law enforcement agents and the Directorate of State Services (DSS) for its failure of intelligence to effectively nip in the bud the dozens of bloody attacks and hit-and-run shootings by hoodlums and terrorists in the Southeast purportedly attempting to destroy the economic mainstay of millions of Igbo people.
“Since the DSS, the police and the armed forces together with the governors of the Southeast of Nigeria are happy that the commoners are been decimated, degraded and almost on the verge of being wiped off the earth by the scorched earth terrorist attacks of undesirable elements seeking to unleash a regime of chaos, anarchy and doom in the Southeast, 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 a forceful implementation of the so-called Sit-at-home order.
A live television broadcast by Mazi Nnamdi Kanu on the lingering controversy around the order will assuage the suspended animation and suspicions by some persons loyal to Simon Ekpa that Nnamdi Kanu did not order an end to the economically stagnating Sit-at-home order in the South East of Nigeria. Secondly, just as was done in Ukraine, President Muhammadu Buhari should democratise arms licences so sane adult Nigerians can bear AK-47s and AK-49s to safeguard their right to life as a matter of national emergency.
“If these killings continue, who then will President Muhammadu Buhari preside over?”
Making the observation in a media statement is the National Coordinator of the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko who also lamented the bloody violence and mass killings of Igbo citizens by suspected gunmen purportedly enforcing the Simon Ekpa-ordered sit-at-home order.
“Our Igbo ancestors won’t be happy with us that armed terrorists of Igbo extraction are killing fellow Igbos over political differences and agitation for self-government. 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 Mazi Nnamdi Kanu addresses the media as a matter of extreme urgency to put to an end these killings”.
“The fastest way to bring to the end of the stalemate between loyalists of Simon Ekpa who claimed to be a self-confessed disciple of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu the detained leader of IPOB and the spokesperson of IPOB who confirmed the suspension of the sit-at –home order by Mazi Nnamdi Kanu disputed by Simon Ekpa, is for the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari to let Mazi Nnamdi Kanu to publicly in a widely publicized live broadcast from the DSS office to personally confirm that he personally ordered the suspension of the Sit- at-home order.