From Ogbonnaya Ndukwe, Aba
Igbo Lawyers Association (ILA), an umbrella body of lawyers of Igbo origin at home and in the Diaspora, has lauded the United Nations (UN) directive on the Nigerian government to unconditionally and immediately release the leader of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, from detention.
The group also hailed the order on the Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Government to pay adequate compensation to him, for infringement on his basic human rights, as enshrined in the UN Charter on Human Rights, as well as the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Leader of ILA, Chief Chuks Muoma, SAN, said in a chat with Sunday Sun yesterday that the directive by the UN was correct and right, as Kanu had the right to protest the maltreatment of his people, the Igbo by the Nigerian government.
He accused President Buhari of being vindictive because of the fact that Kanu was Igbo and questioned if the IPOB leader was ever seen with dangerous weapons, killing people, as a common criminal.
“The UN body is correct and right in their assessment and directive for Kanu, to be released immediately and unconstitutionally.
“Why is the Nigerian government holding him? Is it not his fundamental right to disagree with the way his people are being treated in the country?” he said.
While stating that the IPOB leader had not breached any law of Nigeria, Muoma noted that his anger was that his people, Ndigbo, were no longer comfortable where they were and the way they are being treated.
The ILA leader reminded the authorities that it was the Igbo that coined the slogan: ‘One Nigeria’, during the Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe’s NCNC days, adding that no other tribe had worked so hard to unite and sustain growth and development in the country, as the people of the Southeast.