Festus Okere, Chairman of the World Igbo Congress (WIC), on Wednesday, called on President Bola Tinubu to release Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).
He described Kanu as a “freedom fighter for democracy.”
Okere made the appeal during his address at the WIC Congress in Boston, Massachusetts, emphasizing that freeing Kanu would give the Igbos a genuine sense of inclusion.
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“Your Excellency, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, World Igbo Congress… join the World to appeal to you to release our son, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.
“Courts, at home and abroad, have found him innocent and unlawfully renditioned.
“Your history as a freedom fighter and for democracy is well known. Releasing Mazi Nnamdi Kanu would cement that history for the Igbos,” Okere stated.
He urged Igbos to remain conscious of their identity and heritage.
“This is not just the cry of a cock. It is the call of history. It is not merely a sound that announces the dawn.
“It is a summons to consciousness… And to this, I say to all Umu Igbo, at home and in the diaspora: Wake up! Time is running out,” he added.
Okere also condemned the exclusion of Igbos from governance since the Biafra civil war, noting, “Once again, let me repeat: Our collective survival, as Ndi Igbo in Nigeria, is under siege.
“Igbos must resolutely unite to own their destiny in the continued threats facing the Igbos in the Nigerian polity.”
He concluded by stressing unity and cultural pride, asserting, “The continued, deliberate exclusion of Ndi Igbo in the governance of Nigeria… has remained a contemptuous and disrespectful disregard for the Igbos.
“They continue to contribute more than others to Nigeria’s existence and development.”
