The United Igbo Elders Council (UNIEC), has called on the Federal Government to unconditionally release the incarcerated leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, and all political prisoners who are being detained in different parts of the country.
The group which made the demand in a statement through its Director of Media and Publicity, Prof Obasi Igwe, and Coordinator-General, Alpha Justice, on Saturday, also called on the government to put an end to “all unlawful, hooded, night and secret arrests, detentions, and extrajudicial killings in the country, as well as an end to ports and economic blockades against Eastern Nigeria.’
In the statement titled, “New Governance Model for Nigeria”, the group also set a five-point agenda for meaningful peace and development in the country, emphasizing that it arrived at the decisions after a series of consultations and detailed analysis of diverse proposals over the dire situation in today’s Nigeria.
UNIEC added that restructuring, regionalism, and referendum are win-win templates for peace and stability in Nigeria.
“It is an indisputable fact that by mid-2015, there was not a single insurgency or war to overthrow the Federal Government or procure a Biafra anywhere in Igbo society and none today, except the one manufactured by a tyrant that made sure that such a war existed, with shoot-to-kill or shoot-at-sight orders openly issued against promising innocent youngsters in full view of all the world, in part to punish the Igbo for their sundry sins,’ the group said.
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“We, therefore, demand for the unconditional release of the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, and his colleagues, and all political prisoners, with immediate end to all manner of unlawful, hooded, night and secret arrests, detentions and extrajudicial killings.
“Mazi Nnamdi Kanu has been tortured, victimized and dehumanized beyond measure and it confers to a nation no value to continue to keep an innocent citizen in jail.
“Opening up the Igbo/Eastern Ports system equally spills over and triggers development across the Eastern Middle Belt and beyond, while the continual lockdown of the Igbo/Eastern Ports is also having cumulative negative tolls on the entire Eastern half of the country down to Maiduguri.
“Nigeria demands restructuring based on single nationality regions side by side with multi-ethnic nationality regions, and the number in each category to be determined by competitive regional consideration.
“No economic policy or blueprint, however brilliantly formulated, can work beyond a marginal neocolonial glass ceiling without a correct political economy or foundation, otherwise a basis on which the superstructure stands,” the statement added.
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