IPOB: Nnamdi Kanu must not die in custody, Ohaneze warns

Ohanaeze Ndigbo, apex Igbo socio-cultural group, has warned the Federal Government against allowing the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu,  to die in custody of the Directorate of State Services (DSS).

This warning comes after his brother Emmanuel Kanu and attorney Ifeanyi Ejiofor had raised the alarm on Kanu’s health condition following a routine visit at the Department of State Service cell. They said the Biafra leader is critically ill and has not been allowed access to his doctors by the DSS.

Ejiofor said Kanu “is currently suffering from gastrointestinal illness, which necessitates the constant use of antacids and other available medical treatments.”

 “The DSS has refused to allow him to have even the smallest amount of prescribed painkiller, which could have given him short-term respite.”

Reacting in a statement titled, “Nnamdi Kanu Must Not Die in Prison,” Ohanaeze described the report as worrisome to any fair-minded patriotic Nigerian.

Signed by the National Publicity Secretary of Ohanaeze, Dr Alex Ogbonnia, the pan-Igbo body warned the Federal Government that nothing untoward should happen to Kanu in detention.

According to the statement, the group’s President General, Ambassador George Obiozor, has on several occasions advised President Buhari on Kanu’s issue beyond the courts or the use of force, stating that it requires a political solution.

The statement read, “The Ohanaeze Ndigbo, the apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation, and several eminent Igbo have repeatedly appealed to the heart of Mr President to release Nnamdi Kanu on the premise of a political solution. The only living legend among those that fought for Nigeria’s independence and the Minister of Aviation in the First Republic, Chief Mbazulike Amechi, presented the request to Buhari when he visited Abakaliki, Ebonyi State, as his last wish.

“Earlier before that, Mbazulike had also met the President in Aso Rock, Abuja for the same reason. In the interim, common sense will ask – why deny Nnamdi Kanu the necessary access to a medical doctor? This is very curious and raises a lot of questions.

“Finally, it is common knowledge that the incarceration of Nnamdi Kanu has rather contributed to the enormity of insecurity in the South-East and one wonders what will happen if, by the utter carelessness, negligence or unnecessary victimisation, something untoward happens to Nnamdi Kanu.”