The continued incarceration of Nnamdi Kanu, Leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) is only creating more carnage in the SouthEast Geo-Political Zone.
President Bola Tinubu should be magnanimous enough to grant him amnesty for calm to return to the region. It does not matter that various courts have ruled against Kanu’s detention. And all counts of treason or whatever interpretation the law provides should be dropped.
The nation is still a work in progress. The road to greater heights will be bumpy. By keeping the IPOB leader in jail, the Federal Government must not feel that IPOB will fizzle away. Recent developments have shown that the more time Kanu stays away from his group, the worse it becomes for security in the SouthEast.
This is because various criminal groups hiding under the banner of IPOB have taken over the zone. There are ‘Unknown Gunmen’, ‘Auto Pilots’ and other rag tag formations creating mayhem and spilling blood. While the people cry, the marauders are becoming more deadly.
The ultra-dangerous area surrounding the Federal University of Technology, Owerri (FUTO) is a den of kidnappers and murderers. Fingers pointed at IPOB until multiple arrests revealed that those disturbing Nekede, Avu, Emeabiam, Ihiagwa, Obinze and Eziobodo were herdsmen. Strangely, all these towns fall under the immediate jurisdiction of the 34th Field Artillery Brigade of the Nigeria Army, stationed in Obinze.
The military concentrated on IPOB, real or imaginary and overlooked violent gangs around their barracks. Tinubu should be concerned that lives are wasted regularly in the SouthEast.
No part of the country must be turned to an unnecessary battle ground. The death toll does not distinguish criminals from the military or civilians.
Soldiers have suffered enough casualties in the South-East. Till date, a retired general, Richard Duru, remains missing after he was kidnapped by gunmen in Owerri, in September 2023. A retired captain, John Enoch, was killed in the Orlu Senatorial Zone.
Even General Emeka Ojukwu, who led breakaway Republic of Biafra, was granted amnesty, allowed to contest elections severally and in death, was given hero’s burial
In that same volatile zone, a female Lance Corporal, Gloria Linus, was dehumanised and beheaded with her fiancé, a retired serviceman. More deaths followed in Orsu Ihiteukwa, causing the military to raid the town with armoured tanks and helicopters. No state in the South-East is free.
Militarisation did not stop Unknown Gunmen from killing five soldiers at Obikabia Junction, Ogbor Hill, Aba on May 30, 2024 or attacking a truck load of paramilitary men accompanied by soldiers and ratings at Eke Nsu, in Ehime Mbano in September 2023.
IPOB officials have distanced themselves from some of these heinous crimes and may just be right. On April 15, 2023, one Thaddeus Ojokoh, a tailor from Umuokrika, AhiazuMbaise, was arrested by the police, at Afor Oru Market. He was tagged as IPOB officer.
On April 21, hoodlums attacked a police checkpoint in Ngor Okpala, killing six persons including four policemen and a couple. Nine days later, on April 30, the police announced that the criminals had been apprehended.
Among them was Ojokoh. People wondered how a man already in police detention could carry out an operation physically outside his cell.
There is every reason not to swallow all security alerts fully. Ojokoh could have been killed in detention if one of his kinsmen, a top media man, had not cried out early enough to remind the world that the accused was innocent.
Journalists have been abducted in the course of duty. The latest happened on October 10, 2024 when a vehicle conveying some sportswriters to Uyo was blocked.
Three of them were killed in the exchange of gunfire that followed. Tinubu deserves gratitude for signing into law, a bill creating the South-East Development Commission (SEDC). The positives of this gesture can only begin to manifest under a free and secured environment.
In the North-East, repentant members of the Boko Haram terrorist group have been retrained and lured back into the society.
Militants like Dokubo Asari and Gani Adams are free as air, moving about from one part of the country to the other. Even General Emeka Ojukwu, who led breakaway Republic of Biafra, was granted amnesty, allowed to contest elections severally and in death, was given hero’s burial. Keeping Kanu in prison has not achieved peace.
