Former Senate Minority Leader Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe has said the conviction and life sentence handed to the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, did not come as a surprise to him or to many in the South-East.
In a statement issued in Abuja by his media adviser, Uchenna Awom, Abaribe described the judgment as the culmination of a long-predicted outcome, insisting that it reflects what he called a preconceived plot against Kanu.
According to him, the warning signs had been evident from the moment the Federal Government declined repeated appeals to extend to Kanu the same amnesty considerations granted to other groups in the past.
“We knew today’s outcome was imminent the day the Federal Government refused to consider pleas for amnesty for Nnamdi Kanu, as it had done for others,” Abaribe said.
He argued that the contrast between the government’s treatment of Kanu and its negotiations with armed groups elsewhere in the country exposes what he described as entrenched injustice against the South-East.
“Is it not ironic that negotiations and peace deals with rampaging terrorists in the North-East and North-West were initiated at all levels of government, just as ex-militants in the South-South received amnesty and even pipeline protection contracts? Yet justice in Nigeria seems perpetually denied the South-East,” he said.
Abaribe noted that leaders from the region had repeatedly urged the authorities to adopt a more conciliatory approach in the interest of national unity, but those efforts were ignored.
Despite his strong reservations about the judgment, the senator urged restraint, saying the region must now rely on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to ensure fairness going forward.
“The Igbo nation is now left with no other option than to place its fate in this matter squarely on the desk of President Tinubu,” he said.
He appealed for calm, urging citizens to avoid any actions that could escalate tensions, saying, “We ask the Igbo nation and other lovers of Nigeria to remain calm, pray, and not take the law into their hands. May Nigeria succeed, thrive, and advance in justice, equity, and fairness.”
Credit: The Sun