Iwuanyanwu calls for release of Kanu, others

UMUAHIA—PROMINENT Igbo leader, Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, has called on the Federal Government to urgently release leader of Independent People of Biafra, IPOB, and other members of the group currently in detention, saying that their agitation for Biafra did not mean secession.

According to Iwuanyanwu, Biafra is a reality that cannot be wished away just like Oduduwa and Arewa in South-West and North, respectively, saying that nobody would argue that members of Oduduwa and Arewa are trying to secede. Chief Iwuanyanwu has also called for payment of reparation for the invasion of Igboland by herdsmen. Iwuanyanwu, who spoke yesterday evening at Gregory University, Uturu, Abia State, at the opening ceremony of the 2016 World Igbo Summit, urged the Federal Government to release the detained Biafra agitators, or subject them to proper trial if they have gone against the law of the land and not to detain them perpetually. Commending the organisers of the summit, holding with the theme Visioning the Igbo Nation in 2016, Iwuanyanwu, also condemned the attack on Igbo communities by herdsmen and called for protest by Ndigbo to National Assembly on the issue. He said: “For years, I have been unhappy over Igbo affairs.

 This summit is a beacon of hope if we seriously work together. It will restore Igbo unity and hope. “We should at the end have Uturu Declaration,” he said, while advising the organisers on the areas they would look into which include restructuring of the nation and marginalisation, which he said prompted the agitation by the youths. He added: “Marginalisation of Igbo makes the youths to agitate for Biafra. Biafra is a reality you cannot wish away like Oduduwa and Arewa. “Biafra is a reality, but we are not seceding; the agitators have no arms. You can only arrest them if they carry arms; they are peaceful agitators. The Federal Government should release them from prison.”
(Vanguard)