The Coalition of Northern Groups (CNG) representing rights and civil organizations in Northern Nigeria has called on President Muhammadu Buhari not to attempt freeing the leader of the proscribed Indigenous People Of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu.
Spokesman of the CNG Abdul-Azeez Suleiman at a Press Conference in Kano, Monday expressed concern over the body language of President Buhari when an interest group from the South-East paid a courtesy call on him demanding the release of the IPOB leader describing it as “unrelenting desperation by certain interest groups in the South-East to subvert the due process of justice and tamper with the judicial process since Kanu’s arraignment.”
The CNG further gave a breakdown of crimes committed by IPOB from 2017 to 2020 saying Kanu has instigated the killing of 1,230 Northern Nigeria citizens living in the part of the South-East while the proscribed IPOB also launched attacks and destruction of national security assets and democratic symbols.
“Several millions worth of businesses, properties and valuable assets belonging to northerners and citizens of other regions were destroyed across the South-Eastern cities on the instructions of Nnnamdi KANU within the same period” the group alleged adding that about 400 security personnel were also killed as a result.
Part of the observations the group mentioned include among others, “The composition of the Igbo elders group has vindicated the position we have exposed since 2017 that the diabolical scheme planned and exhibited in the criminal actions of Kanu and IPOB, is fully supported morally and politically by the vast majority of the pliant Igbo elders, elites, politicians, religious elders, traditional rulers, business persons, and the larger population of the South-East”
However the CNG gave some resolutions among others, resolving to “Warn that any attempt by the President to accede to the demand to release, without prosecuting and punishing Kanu, will inadvertently reduce Nigeria to a completely lawless state where criminals of all shades will commit crimes against the country, and then ask their traditional rulers and other regional or tribal leaders to press for their release.
“Warn President Buhari that the North has today realised that he places more premium on the pursuit for votes and political popularity for his party than he does for the sanctity of lives of northerners and security personnel who stake their lives and welfare of families in the service of the nation” the CNG declared.
