The Movement for the Advancement of National Transformation, MANTRA, has called on the federal government to set Mazi Nnamdi Kanu free as a major step towards addressing the agitations in the southeast.
The group made the call as a fallout of the release of Mr Sunday Adeyemo also known as Sunday Igboho, a Yoruba nation activist, by the Beninese government.
Recall the DSS reported that Sunday Igboho and his lieutenants engaged officers of the secret police in a fierce gun battle on July 1, 2021 at his residence in Soka, Ibadan, the capital of Oyo State after which he was arrested in Benin Republic while attempting to flee to Germany and had since remained in detention until Monday when he was set free.
In a statement signed by the Convener of MANTRA, Chief Jude Ndukwe and made available to the media on Wednesday in Abuja, the group described the release of Sunday Igboho as a welcome development and an indication that the Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu Presidency is not that of vendetta or vindictiveness and is not interested in persecuting its citizens.
“It is based on this that we urge President Tinubu to ensure the immediate and unconditional release of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu from the custody of the DSS and free him to return home to his loved ones.
“Anything short of this will strengthen the suspicion of Nigerians that this is a sectional government with a sectional agenda.
“What is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. We believe very strongly that there was no way Sunday Igboho would have been released without any intervention from the Nigerian government. We hereby request strongly that the same principles applied to Mr Sunday Igboho be applied to Mazi Nnamdi Kanu whose release will no doubt assuage the frayed nerves of youths of the southeast and help restore peace and security in the region.
“May we remind President Bola Tinubu that he shares a similar sociopolitical trajectory with Mazi Nnamdi Kanu as an agitator.
“As a one-time activist, agitator and a leader of NADECO that was once proscribed by the federal government, Tinubu went on exile with several other NADECO members and were not only persecuted but also brutally hounded by the State over trumped up charges.
“Today, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu is being made to unjustly pass through the same horrendous process the only difference being that Tinubu and his NADECO comrades passed through that tortuous road under a military regime while Kanu is experiencing his not just under a civilian administration but under an administration led by a veteran of agitation and activism.
“No other person in government today understands the experiences of Nnamdi Kanu better than the president himself who has passed through that route before. He knows better and we believe that he will do the right thing.
“We therefore reiterate our urgent call for Nnamdi Kanu to be released now,” the statement concluded.
