The President of the Indigenous Igbo Youth Congress, Chief Mayor Echefu, has condemned the life sentence passed on the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.
According to him, the IPOB leader was fighting for the freedom of his oppressed people without arms, and so the judgment was an aberration.
In an interview with VINCENT KALU, the Igbo youth leader, emphasised that only the freedom of Nnamdi Kanu would stabilise the South-East region.
The leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has been jailed for life. What is your reaction?
The life sentenced passed on to Mazi Nnamdi Kanu by Justice Omotosho is a disappointment at its very best. The question that is begging for an answer is the law under which the conviction was made. This judgement has clearly shown that there are different laws for different people, and that is one of the reasons for the agitation; when you are not treated like others in a country that we claim is for everybody.
Few days before the IPOB’s leaders’ conviction, one of the Boko Haram terrorist leaders, Hussaini Ismaíl was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment. This was a person that has killed people in their hundreds, razed communities and he was given a pat on the back, but Kanu, who has not committed any offence, except that he was agitating for the self determination of the Igbo because of the way they have been subjugated in this country.
This judgement has summarised what Nnamdi Kanu has been saying that it would be hard for the Igbo to get justice in Nigeria.
So, the truth of the matter is that the judgement cannot stand because it was judicial fraud to sentence to life a man who was agitating for his people’s rights. The young man was asking the judge, where is the law under which you are jailing me for life?
We saw how the judge was reading the judgement as if he was not the one that wrote it. Nigerians, over time have been casting doubt over the country’s judiciary. This is one of such. Even those who hated Kanu are holding the same view about the verdict.
What has the Nigerian government done to the Boko Haram insurgent group, and the terrorists that we have given baptismal name ‘bandits”, as well as the Fulani militia, holding the nation on its jugular? Nothing! Instead, those caught are enlisted into the Nigerian Army.
Kanu was unjustly jailed. He was a freedom fighter. I’m calling on reasonable Igbo men to join us to take this matter beyond the shores of Nigeria. We have a point to take over this matter to international community.
If a wife says she is no longer interested in a marriage, is it by force to stay in the marriage? You jailed him because he said his people can no longer continue to be oppressed. There is no justice in the country, which is the reason the nation is not working, and Igbo want to opt out and you are opposed to it, but you don’t want to allow a level playing field for everyone.
What is the next move?
Opinion moulders across the country hitherto had called and are still calling on President Bola Tinubu to apply political solution to the Nnamdi Kanu’s matter, but he didn’t listen. He is seeing it as a score he has to settle with the Igbo. He attributed his political defeat in Lagos State to the Igbo; he forgot that it was a collective decision by every tribe in Lagos who wanted something different.
This is an opportunity for him to chronicle his name in bold prints by releasing Nnamdi Kanu. There was no reason for that judgement if we had an independent judiciary. As it that wasn’t enough, you sent him to serve in Sokoto State, where the weather is very hostile to break him down.
Nnamdi Kanu’s release will stabilise the South-East Region. He is the conscience of the Igbo race.
America has re-designated Nigeria a Country of Particular Concern because of alleged Christian genocide, and has threatened to come after the terrorists. What is your position on this?
Whoever that is denying genocide against Christians is a liar from the pit of hell. Nigeria as a country, is very difficult to understand. We have seen videos of Sheik Gumi hobnobbing with terrorists, which they nicknamed bandits in the forest, but the security agencies would claim they don’t know where these criminals were. Videos of where these terrorists after meeting with government officials and traditional rulers are being escorted by the same security agencies.
Those against the US coming to take out these terrorists are sponsors and promoters of terrorism in the country and by extension aiding in Christian genocide. If you are concerned over the insecurity in the country and someone has promised to help you solve it and you start to oppose it, then, your concern is in doubt.
Who are the people doing the killings in the Middle Belt and Southern Kaduna, and what is the motive behind it?
In Benue State alone, there are more than 700,000 people in the various IDP camps. Of this figure, about 400 are children, and yet someone is happy over the situation, knowing that the government lacks the willpower to fight them. Where was Kabiru Umar Abubakar Dikko (a.k.a. Kabiru Sokoto) arrested? He bombed St Theresa Catholic Church in Nyanya in 2011 and dispatched over 40 worshippers to their earlier graves.
These people who don’t want American intervention are comfortable with the killings because they have an agenda they are pursuing. There is no doubt about it, Christians are being systematically targeted.
If you want Christian genocide to stop in the north, Sharia law must be abolished. It runs contrary to the constitution of the country, which defines Nigeria as a secular state. It is one of the things that has put Nigeria on the edge. Ever since its introduction by governors who wanted to make a political capital out f it, the north has not had peace.
There is this accusation of inhuman treatment being levelled against the Tiger Base, a formation of the Nigeria Police Force in Imo State. What is your take on this issue?
Tiger Base is a special unit of the Nigerian Police Force, Imo State Command. The place is a torture chamber. That unit has been accused of being responsible for so many extra judicial killings in Imo. If you are arrested and taken to that place, only God would help you to be out alive. It is notorious. It is alleged that the state government uses it to intimidate and harass its political foes.
Towards the build up to the last election, I was in the same car with the Labour Party candidate in the last governorship election in Imo State, Senator Attan Achonu, after attending a synod of the Anglican Church, and when we got to Obiezina, some operatives of the police from the Tiger Base unit, in a commando style blocked us and started shooting sporadically into the air. I was calming Senator Achonu down not to allow his own security to engage them. You could have imagined the level of collateral damage if his security has responded to the challenge. It was a blood cuddling experience. We thank God that Senator Achonu brought his wealth of experience, patience and maturity to bear to avoid the bloodshed that would have positioned Imo State on the wrong page of history. It was a terrible thing.
Go to Imo State and ask the people about Tiger Base, your ears would be full over the atrocities this police unit is committing. Their cup of iniquity is full and running over, and I’m calling on the Inspector General Police, Egbetokun to carry out discrete investigations on this unit, and he would be ashamed of the outfit. The IGP should urgently look into their activities and either reorganise it or disband it. It has added to the negative image of the police in Nigeria. They cannot continue to kill Igbo systematically.
IGP, look into this matter; I believe you are gentle and humane, in spite of what Sowore has made Nigerians to believe. I’m using this opportunity to also call on all the victims of Tiger Base brutality to speak up because we are taking their atrocious acts to the International Criminal Court, as well as Amnesty International and other human rights organisations. They are using government’s name to carry out criminal acts.
What is your position on the 2027 election? The opposition parties are in disarray, and political pundits say, it is a walk over for Tinubu.
It won’t go in that way. Forget about what you are seeing now. As the events unfold, you will realise that the APC is a nest of scorpions that would sting themselves to death. The opposition parties would gather themselves together and will spring surprises by 2027. It is not yet uhuru for Tinubu. He knew that his policies have destroyed whatever that was left of this country, and that is why he is browbeating opposition politicians into defecting to the ruling party. So, it is not even between APC and other political parties. It is battle between the masses of this country and the APC.
Look at the level of borrowing; our external debt is headed to N200 trillion and you cannot point at what the money was used for. Look at the level of excruciating hardship in the country. Do you think an average Nigerian can vote for APC?
Credit: The Sun