Victor Umeh, a former National Chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), has insisted that the continued incarceration of Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB), by the Federal Government is a way of dealing with the entire Igbo nation.
Umeh said that the Buhari led Federal Government is handling the issue of Kanu as a personal matter, adding that it has become difficult for them to handle.
He said this during a chat with reporters in Onitsha at the weekend.
Umeh, a former Senator who represented the Anambra Central Senatorial zone, said, “They treat the Nnamdi Kanu issue as a personal thing. It is not. Nnamdi Kanu enjoys the solidarity and sympathy of the Igbo people because he is calling for the de-marginalisation of Ndigbo.
“He wants the equality of citizenship rights for all in Nigeria. The government thinks it’s Nnamdi Kanu they are dealing with, not knowing that they are dealing with all of us, the entire Igbo nation.”
He added, “It’s pertinent for the Federal Government to realise that they are dealing with the entire Igbo nation and that has become so difficult for them to handle.”
“If they do it, there will be no problem. Once the government changes its attitudes toward Igbos, we’ll embrace Nnamdi Kanu and ask him to allow this thing to lie. I know he’ll do it as he did during the governorship election.”
Kanu is currently facing terrorism charges before Justice Binta Nyako of an Abuja Federal High Court.
His trial will continue on February 16.
A 15-count terrorism charge was on Wednesday, January 19, slammed on Kanu by the Federal Government.
The IPOB leader pleaded not guilty to the charges and asked the court to discharge and acquit him without standing trial because the charges were incurably defective and not worth being defended.
He claimed the charges, which he denied upon arraignment, were incompetent, invalid and have no force of law.
The alleged secessionist, through his counsel, Mike Ozekhome SAN, insisted that the offences brought against him were committed in the United Kingdom, outside the shores of Nigeria.
