Special to USAfrica magazine (Houston) and USAfricaonline.com, first Africa-owned, US-based newspaper published on the Internet.
Buhari says he’ll not pardon IPOB’s Kanu; Court will adjudicate.
The private and public appeals, efforts and meetings with some key members of the Igbo leadership groups and Governors with Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari seeking pardon and the release from his government’s continued detention and imprisonment of the controversial but influential leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) movement, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, has failed, again, to achieve their goal.
In the words of President Buhari, at the Ebonyi State Stakeholders’ Forum at the Government House in Abakaliki: “I have listened carefully to the various appeals from the elders to the traditional leaders, regarding a wide range of options…. And as I have said previously, this matter remains in the full purview of the court where it will be properly adjudicated.”
He added that “I must register my deep and grave concern with regards to the deteriorating state of security affairs in this region…. In the last 48 hours, I have been informed of the latest in the round of brutal actions carried out by gun-wielding terrorists who prey on innocent and hardworking citizens…. Unfortunately, these barbaric acts were aimed at those who have committed their lives to protecting their fellow citizens. May the souls of these soldiers and many others killed by these evildoers rest in peace.”
The leadership of the various groups who approached Buhari, a retired army General, as reflected in the USAfrica News Index 2021-2022 believe that given Kanu’s health issues and their suggestion that such a move will contribute significantly toward improvement in the south east security and peaceful considerations.
The President hinted that Kanu’s issue is not his priority item: “My worry is for our hardworking and innocent civilians for whom life is already tough and will like to just go out and earn a decent and honest living.”
