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The Igbo National Movement, INM, has challenged the Federal government of Nigeria, to explain to Nigerians, how it arrested the leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Nnamdi Kanu in International territories.
INM, leaders led by the President, Anthony Olisa Okolo, Secretary, Onyemuche Mbachu, Chief Peter Agba Kalu and Eze Eluchie.
Their argument was that since the British and Kenya government had denied involvement in the arrest of Kanu, the Nigerian government should come up with a better explanation having known the legal implications.
Part of their argument was that it was unlawful for the Nigerian government to arrest Kanu having known him a British citizen.
INM explained further that, “The Igbo National Movement has followed the events of the past week in Nigerian affairs and noted that the country continues to slide into a quagmire, both within and without, in its international relations. The current leadership of Nigeria is quickly turning the Federation into a pariah state, known only for lawlessness and corrupt purpose.
“The Nigerian Federation is supposed to operate and be governed as a democratic state rooted in constitutionalism and the rule of law. The Nigerian Federation therefore cannot be unmindful of how negatively it is being perceived by participating in the unlawful abduction of a British passport holder without recourse to legal avenues to which extradition is purposed. By operating in a manner unexpected of a territory governed under democratic precepts, this government puts itself at par with pariah states which consider illegality as an acceptable modus operandi in achieving its objectives.”
“In view of the multiplicity of accounts of the manner in which Mazi Kanu was ‘abducted’, some of which accounts have led the British and Kenyan Governments, to forcefully deny their involvement in any state-sponsored acts.
“It has become pertinent for the Presidency to come clean to its citizens and clarify exactly how this abduction was carried out in international territory, outside the jurisdiction of the Nigerian Federation. It cannot be lost to the Attorney-General that such unlawful arrest could taint or even vitiate any legal proceedings which emanate from it and paints Nigeria and its citizens in the least favourable light that can possibly be expected within a law-abiding international community.”
The Igbo group resolved that “In view of the above, it is impossible to expect that the accused Mazi Kanu, in this case, will be accorded anything remotely resembling a free, fair and public trial and we call for his immediate and unconditional release on legal principles and in accordance with our Criminal Procedure Act which limits powers of arrest and jurisdiction where such arrests may occur.”
