www.odogwublog.com reports that the International Society or Civil Liberties and the Rule of Law
(Intersociety) and South-East based Coalition of Human Rights Organizations
yesterday named three Igbo Distinguished
Personalities of The Year 2016.
They are Nnamdi Kanu , leader of Indigenous People o Biafra
(IPOB); Mr Peter Obi, former Governor of Anambra state and Senator Ike
Ekweremadu, Deputy Senate President.
Kanu was earlier bestowed the prestigious Prisoner-of-Conscience
Award, for his role as leader of Radio Biafra London (RBL) and Indigenous People
of Biafra (IPOB) World Wide,
Kanu got that in recognition of his nonviolent and peaceful
campaign for the emancipation of the Igbo Race using nonviolent and peaceful
means.
‘’Against all odds, he has spent 14 months in detention
without trial
and his group IPOB has lost over 250 of its members and
supporters to
the militarist Administration of Retired Major General
Muhammadu
Buhari. Over 150 of his members are presently languishing in
various
prisons and other detention centres including DSS dungeons
across the
country on trumped up criminal accusations. More than 300 of
his
members and supporters were also deadly shot and battered.
The most
striking aspect of Kanu’s advocacy style that gladdens our
heart is
his pacifist approach, in spite of State provocations and
use of
deadly violence in policing his group’s nonviolent
activities.
For the recognition of Peter Gregory Obi, it was his role as
the former Governor of Anambra State and
true embodiment of Peopling Governance, Input and Output
Legitimacies.
Mr. Peter Obi is the first of its kind in recent Nigerian
political
and public governance epoch. If his type is raised
gubernatorially in
eighteen States of Nigeria’s 36 States; then the entire
country will
automatically experience social, economic and political
transformation
of rapid and scientific proportions.
What Mr. Peter Obi was to Anambra State when he held sway
was what
then Governor Bill Clinton was to the State of Arkansas in
the
United States in 1980s; by raising his State to high
greatness. Former
Governor Obi was chosen as the Second Igbo Distinguished
Personality
of the Year 2016, as a pace setter and formidable standard
of
performance measurement for incumbent and upcoming elected
public
office holders particularly the governors or Federal elected
public
office holders. Apart from tremendous social and infrastructural
transformation of Anambra State when he held sway; he was
and still is
the only governor that left his State with at least
N86Billion worth
of cash and investments and in surplus digits. He was the
only
governor who refused to mortgage his State into serial and
slavish
indebtedness. While a rich State like Lagos State incurred
over
N500Billion debts till date, Anambra State under Obi reduced
its
previous local and foreign debt overhang to N11Billion and
refused to
borrow.
On the other part, Ikechukwu Ekweremadu, a lawyer was chosen
as the Third Igbo
Distinguished Personality of the Year 2016 on account of his
bold and
courageous disposition against all odds since June 2015, in his
capacity as the Deputy Senate President of the Federal
Republic of
Nigeria and highest Igbo Federal Lawmaker. He towered and
withstood
the executive persecution and leprous treatment simply
because he came
from a federal opposition party and insisted that the Igbo
Race is too
important in Nigerian political landscape to be left out in
the
sharing of the principal leadership positions of the 8th
National
Assembly of Nigeria. He has also made an imprint in the
defence of
Igbo interests; in spite of threats and blackmails from the
Executive
Arm since June 2015. Senator Ekweremadu's position as it
affects the
collective interests of the Igbo Race particularly against
the killing
of innocent and defenceless Igbo citizens by security forces
and the
Fulani Janjaweed is very encouraging and endearing.
With this recognition and the Three Igbo Distinguished
Personalities,
distinguishing themselves in their three respective fields
of social,
governance and legislative advocacies and performances;
there is most
likely a light at the end of the tunnel for the Igbo Race.
This
recognition is not award bestowment but rather an
appreciation of the
fact that the triplet Moses may most likely have landed
again in Igbo
Land.
The South East based human rights and pro-democracy
organizations alleged that there have been
silent genocide in Nigeria
in the last 17- year old second
republic , in which about 101, 500
defenceless Nigerians were killed
extra-judicially.
The South East Based
Coalition of Human Rights
Organizations (SBCHROs) made this
allegation yesterday in Onitsha, Anambra State
during a briefing to mark this year’s 68th Anniversary of the
Declaration of human rights .
Nze Emeka Umeagbalasi, Chairman of Board of Trustees
(BoT) of the International Society for
the Civil LibertIES and the Rule of Law (Intersociety) whyo spoke for the group said the high political terror and militarisation policies of the Muhammed Buhari
administration has led to the emergence of 18 new armed opposition groups and upsurge in the inflow of illicit small arms and light weapons in non-state actor hands , which has risen to
an all high of 5million in 2016.
The group described killing
outside the law to include killing people who were taken into
detention alive, killing of unarmed and
defenceless citizens engaging in church vigils and street protest and
procession as well as electoral killings .
Other killings
according to the group include
“military invasion and massacre of unarmed and defenseless villagers, raiding
and killing by security forces of unarmed and defenceless persons in their homes,churches, mosques, and
markets, any form of killings of civilians
or non-combatants by armed opposition groups in war and peace times,
killings arising from inter-communal and religious violence particularly as
they concern unarmed and defenceless
citizens.
The agents of these killings according to the group were
Boko Haram,which accounted for 17,000 deaths in five years, deaths from
detention.
Kanu, Obi , Ekweremadu named Igbo Personalities by South-East based Coalition
Reviewed by Unknown
on
Sunday, December 11, 2016
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