Nnamdi Kanu: The Nigerian State Continues To Use 'Stalling Tactics' To Quietly Extinguish The IPOB Leader In Detention

 Nnamdi Kanu: The Nigerian State Continues To Use 'Stalling Tactics' To Quietly Extinguish The IPOB Leader In Detention

On 29th December 2023, the public recieved a heart-rending news of how Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, the illegally detained leader of the Indeginous People Of Biafra(IPOB) has been seriously down as a result of a dire internal hemorrhage in his blood vessels alongside other health complications he is going through under the solitary confinement walls of the Nigerian Department Of State Security(DSS). 

Recall that nearly three years ago, the Nigeria government engaged an international espionage network to unlawfully kidnap and extraordinarily rendition the IPOB leader from Kenya to Nigeria, and has since kept him in custody while he underwent "legal prosecution". And although subsequent Nigerian courts had ruled in favor of Kanu, ordering his unconditional release and acquittal, citing the legitimacy of his agitation for self-determination through a peaceful means, the Nigerian supreme court during its landmark judgement on 15th December, 2023 failed to neither uphold the judgement of its subordinate courts nor give an informed ruling of its own. Instead, it reverted the case back to the Federal high court which a year earlier stated that it lack the jurisdiction to give a sound judgement on the case. The Supreme Court also erroneously justified the continued incarceration of Kanu in the DSS cell.

Nnamdi Kanu has committed no crime known to law, aside demanding the conduct of a United Nations' supervised referendum for the people of Eastern Nigeria - who are largely agreed to have suffered oppression and subjugation, since the unconsented amalgamation of the Nigerian entity by colonial Britain in 1914. So, the inhumane judgement delivered by the Supreme Court of course, sparked great dissatisfaction, especially in the East, and in IPOB movement who for years had continued to have faith in the Nigerian Judiciary, paced themselves in the face of unprecedented provocations, extrajudicial killings and forceful abductions of their folks without fair trial, this including the extraordinary rendition of the leader.

The IPOB Leader has on various occasions been reported to have serious life-threatening health complications owing to his tragic ordeal in Kenya, in the hands of his abductors who tortured him for eight days before bringing him to Nigeria. And until recently, Nigerian authorities did not allow him acesss to his personal doctors, and equally refused to release him either on the indispensable "discharge and acquittal" judgement of the appellate court, or grant him medical clemency leave on health grounds to undergo rigorous surgery to ascertain the level of damage that has been done to his person.

Thus, it has became speculatively clear enough, that Nigeria government as well as their supposed co-conspirators on both local and foreign levels have decided that, having not been able to immediately jail the IPOB leader - which they had thought would be a cakewalk upon his rendition, they are left with no other choice but to capitalize on his health complications to slowly but meticulously "extinguish" what is left of his physical being. They are carrying this out by allowing his inflicted injuries to continue to eat deep and deteriorate irreparably, while they scamper for ulterior means to bend the law and finally put him behind bars. And could lead one to argue that what transpired at the supreme court was the beginning of the long plan.

However, it is important to buttress that, should Nigeria suceeds through its ill-advised actions to force the IPOB movement out of their legal course and pragmatic diplomacy in pursuit of the self-determination right of the people of Eastern Nigeria, then it looses the moral, legal and politicial right to confront or complain even to the International community about the actions of the movement henceforth.

Nigeria is already an entity marred with severe ethnic, economic and security crisis, Some of which ofcourse, can be said to be consciously intended by state-actors for geopolitical, ethnic and ultranationalism reasons. For example, the massacres of indeginous people in central Nigeria by the Fulani terror herdsmen who have been on the ramage since 2015 with operational backing from their kinsmen in the political sphere.

Nonetheless, the adverse impact of these ethnic strife and the dire economic decadence in Nigeria, if then added to the Biafra agitation which could go south at anytime would apparently result to the demise of Nigeria as presently constituted. It is imperative that the Nigerian government and International community prevail on this issue, and free the IPOB leader and seek diplomacy to resolve the disagreements.

There are already various conflict zones in the world now which have dire impact on global trade and economy, another one in West Africa would not be in the interest of world trade. And the catalyst for such could be the cynical,

divisive gimmicks of the Nigerian government in addressing the Biafra question and that of its leader.

Written By Enenienwite Ikechukwu

Edited by Ogah C S Maduabuchi 

For Family Writers Press International