Kanu, Obi , Ekweremadu named Igbo Personalities by South-East based Coalition

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.