The apex socio-cultural youth organisation of Ndigbo worldwide, Ohanaeze Youth Council (OYC) has said the revelation of Mr. Femi Adesina days ago that former President Muhammadu Buhari considered the assassination of Nnamdi Kanu should shock the conscience of not only Nigerians but that of Britain and the international community....CONTINUE READING
Adesina, a former Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to ex-President Buhari disclosed in his new book that the then-president opted for the rendition of Kanu, the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), when his administration could have assassinated him.
In his book titled, ‘Reflections of a Special Adviser, Media and Publicity (2015-2023),’ which was recently launched in Abuja, Adesina said Buhari chose to spare Kanu’s life when his government could have killed him.
The secessionist leader has been agitating for the separate state of Biafra.
According to the former presidential aide, Buhari disclosed this during a meeting he had with a delegation of some Igbo elders, who had pleaded for the release of Kanu following his extraordinary rendition and detention in custody of the Department of State Services (DSS) in Abuja.
“In the past six years, I have developed a system where in which I don’t interfere with the judiciary,” Adesina quoted Buhari as saying.
“That was why in the case of Kanu, I said the best was to subject him to the system.
“Let him make his case in court instead of giving a terrible impression of the country from outside.
“I feel it is a favour to give him (Kanu) that opportunity. Government could have mobilised to eliminate him where he was, but we did not do that.”
Following his rendition from Kenya in June 2021, Kanu has faced trial for terrorism-related charges.
Speaking with journalists at Nicon Luxury Hotel in Abuja on Wednesday, January 24, 2024, the OYC National President General, Comrade Igboayaka O. Igboayaka said, “For Nigerians with awareness of Buhari’s lackadaisical approach to the insecurity that ravaged the North during his term, the idea that he considered assassinating a self-determination agitator like Mazi Nnamdi Kanu says a lot about the disdain and tribalistic mindset he had for Ndigbo and for freedom to hold political opinion.”
Igboayaka stressed that “for Britain, this very revelation of attempted assassination on Mazi Nnamdi Kanu by former president Mohammadu Buhari is all that it needs to act quickly to protect the life and liberty of her citizen, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu and Indigenous People of Biafra group.
“It is baffling that in 1984, Britain severely punished Nigeria for attempting to rendition late Alhaji Umaru Dikko but from all indications and empirical evidence it has not demonstrated sufficient interest in protecting Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, a bonafide British citizen.
This is worrisome and suspicious to the Igbo Race over British political and diplomatic romance with the undemocratic tyrannical government of Nigeria. Therefore, we call the British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to do the right thing without further ado.”
OYC also called on all men and women of good conscience and the international community to use “this troubling” revelation of attempted assassination of Kanu by former President Buhari as a reference point for demanding the unconditional release of the IPOB leader.
Igboayaka further said, “Nothing less is desirable because a jurisdiction/ government that considers assassination of human rights activists can never be trusted to have the democratic and moral capacity to give such activists a fair trial.
“It’s crystal clear that eight (8) years of former president Muhammadu Buhari was a calculated assassination project against Ndigbo.
Therefore, it is obvious to over 50 million new generation of Igbo extraction in the Globe, that Operation Python Dance launched by former President Muhammadu Buhari and the attack of September 2017 at Mazi Nnamdi Kanu’s country home at Afara Umuahia which took over two hundred (200) lives of Igbo Youth was orchestrated assassination operation designed by the Nigerian government.”
The youth council, therefore, called on President Ahmed Bola Tinubu to dissociate himself and his presidency from this “bloodthirst against Ndigbo and barbaric mindset of assassination of self-determination human rights activists by releasing Mazi Nnamdi Kanu from detention…CONTINUE READING>>
