Biafra Panic: 10 New Groups Join Forces For Kanu's Release...
The federal government has been advised by a coalition of civil society organizations based in the Southeast, to withdraw all trumped up charges leveled against IPOB leader, Nnamdi Kanu.
Daily Post reports that the coalition urged the government to release Kanu unconditionally with immediate effect.
The group asked the government to stop trying to compromise some individuals and groups, in an attempt to suppress the on-going agitations. They stressed that such acts will end up escalating the issue, which now threatens national security.
A press statement issued in Onitsha, Anambra state, on Wednesday, November 25, bore the demands of the coalition.
According to the communique, the federal government was informed that the people being compromised and influenced to recant are not in control of the Biafra movement and millions of its supporters and sympathizers.
The memorandum was jointly signed by: Comrade Aloysius Attah (CLO); Comrade Peter Onyegiri (Centre for Human Rights & Peace Advocacy); Comrade Samuel Njoku (Human Rights Club); Comrade Justus Uche Ijeoma (Forum for Justice, Equity & Defence of Human Rights).
Others are Comrade Chike Umeh (Society Advocacy Watch Project); Obianuju Joy Igboeli, Esq (Anambra Human Rights Forum); Comrade Emeka Umeagbalasi (Intersociety); Comrade Alex Olisa (South-East Good Governance Forum) and Eze Eluchie (PADDI Foundation).
“A Nigeria of pluralism and democratic constitutionalism, equality and fairness with no distinction in theory and practice as to ethnicity, place of birth, education, sex, class, oligarchic or aristocratic background and religion is always a preferred option and can be safely described as a united Nigeria.
“But a Nigeria of the opposite remains the worst option, while assertion of right to independent statehood is its best alternative. This is because it is better to live free in a land flowing with poverty than to live buoyantly in a land shackled and manacled by chains of slavery and enslavement.
“To assuage the earth-shaking agitations and placate the people of the Southeast zone, all the age-long structural imbalances must be redressed especially the country’s geopolitical imbalances including lopsidedness in the number of States, LGAs, senatorial districts, federal constituencies, federal roads, fiscal allocations and geopolitical compositions of the field formations and headships of the army, police, air force, navy, DSS, NIA, FRSC, prisons and customs,” The group said.
The alliance further stressed that: “In the area of federal public office holders in Nigeria drawn from the six geopolitical zones, the Southeast zone is abysmally represented. For instance, no senior police officer from the zone is among the current heads of the country’s 12 police zonal commands and the few serving AIGs from the zone have since gone on statutory retirement leaving the zone no known serving AIGs out of the country’s current police AIGs of at least 22.
“All these are owing to age-long deliberate policy designed to stunt their promotions and posting till in the twilight of their statutory retirements when they are given retirement promotions. The composition of CPs and AIGs’ cadres of the Nigeria police force is also grossly lopsided in fragrant breach of Section 14 (3) of the 1999 Constitution.
“The same gross lopsided composition is the case in the Nigerian Custom, Nigerian Immigration Service, the Nigerian prisons service, the DSS, the NIA, army, navy and the air force.
“In the headships of SPUs, ATSs, SARS, federal highway police, the mobile police and border police composition and headship in the Nigeria police force; same is the case; likewise the country’s Federal High Court, Appeal Court and Supreme Court Judges and Justices in which the zone is acutely represented.
“The same gross lopsidedness and exclusion are the order of the day in federal ministers, directors, headships of federal executive bodies as well as Service Chiefs and other top non ministerial federal appointments.”
In the same vein, a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), has said that the only way by which Nigeria can quell the Biafra panic is to ensure that the tenets of the Federal Character is strictly adhered to.
Daily Post reports that the coalition urged the government to release Kanu unconditionally with immediate effect.
The group asked the government to stop trying to compromise some individuals and groups, in an attempt to suppress the on-going agitations. They stressed that such acts will end up escalating the issue, which now threatens national security.
A press statement issued in Onitsha, Anambra state, on Wednesday, November 25, bore the demands of the coalition.
According to the communique, the federal government was informed that the people being compromised and influenced to recant are not in control of the Biafra movement and millions of its supporters and sympathizers.
The memorandum was jointly signed by: Comrade Aloysius Attah (CLO); Comrade Peter Onyegiri (Centre for Human Rights & Peace Advocacy); Comrade Samuel Njoku (Human Rights Club); Comrade Justus Uche Ijeoma (Forum for Justice, Equity & Defence of Human Rights).
Others are Comrade Chike Umeh (Society Advocacy Watch Project); Obianuju Joy Igboeli, Esq (Anambra Human Rights Forum); Comrade Emeka Umeagbalasi (Intersociety); Comrade Alex Olisa (South-East Good Governance Forum) and Eze Eluchie (PADDI Foundation).
“A Nigeria of pluralism and democratic constitutionalism, equality and fairness with no distinction in theory and practice as to ethnicity, place of birth, education, sex, class, oligarchic or aristocratic background and religion is always a preferred option and can be safely described as a united Nigeria.
“But a Nigeria of the opposite remains the worst option, while assertion of right to independent statehood is its best alternative. This is because it is better to live free in a land flowing with poverty than to live buoyantly in a land shackled and manacled by chains of slavery and enslavement.
“To assuage the earth-shaking agitations and placate the people of the Southeast zone, all the age-long structural imbalances must be redressed especially the country’s geopolitical imbalances including lopsidedness in the number of States, LGAs, senatorial districts, federal constituencies, federal roads, fiscal allocations and geopolitical compositions of the field formations and headships of the army, police, air force, navy, DSS, NIA, FRSC, prisons and customs,” The group said.
The alliance further stressed that: “In the area of federal public office holders in Nigeria drawn from the six geopolitical zones, the Southeast zone is abysmally represented. For instance, no senior police officer from the zone is among the current heads of the country’s 12 police zonal commands and the few serving AIGs from the zone have since gone on statutory retirement leaving the zone no known serving AIGs out of the country’s current police AIGs of at least 22.
“All these are owing to age-long deliberate policy designed to stunt their promotions and posting till in the twilight of their statutory retirements when they are given retirement promotions. The composition of CPs and AIGs’ cadres of the Nigeria police force is also grossly lopsided in fragrant breach of Section 14 (3) of the 1999 Constitution.
“The same gross lopsided composition is the case in the Nigerian Custom, Nigerian Immigration Service, the Nigerian prisons service, the DSS, the NIA, army, navy and the air force.
“In the headships of SPUs, ATSs, SARS, federal highway police, the mobile police and border police composition and headship in the Nigeria police force; same is the case; likewise the country’s Federal High Court, Appeal Court and Supreme Court Judges and Justices in which the zone is acutely represented.
“The same gross lopsidedness and exclusion are the order of the day in federal ministers, directors, headships of federal executive bodies as well as Service Chiefs and other top non ministerial federal appointments.”
In the same vein, a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), has said that the only way by which Nigeria can quell the Biafra panic is to ensure that the tenets of the Federal Character is strictly adhered to.
