From Stanley Uzoaru,Owerri
The Igbo National Movement(INM) has affirmed that the arrest of the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra(IPOB) Nnamdi Kanu may not outrightly stop agitations by pro Biafra groups nor the clamour for restructuring .
In a statement by the Director of the group, Anthony Okolo and Peter Kalu, media director, while calling for the unconditional release of Kanu has equally advised the federal government to harken to the voice of the people calling for the arrest of sponsors of banditry and Boko Haram .
According to the statement, the inability of the federal government to give equal treatment to the terrorists gangs in the country has elicited more outcry on restructuring and self actualisation by some zones.
Advising the government ,the group said “Therefore, we the members of the Igbo National Movement, wish to advise the Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Government of Nigeria, that it should not mistake the arrest of a single individual, as indicative of the ‘arrest’ of the ongoing nationwide clamor for Self-actualization, Restructuring and Renegotiation of the Nigeria Project by diverse indigenous national groups in the six geo-political regions of Nigeria.
“Just as the failed attempts to arrest similar agitations in the Middle Belt, South Central, South East and West of Nigeria have proved, the people are unanimous in their desire for a fair and equitable restructure of the Federation and will continue to agitate for their rights, no matter which personages are put in jail or to the sword.
” The quest for freedom is a hydra-headed monster. For each agitation for self-determination put down forcibly, 3 or more will likely rise up in its place. The Government will do well to dialogue with bodies who currently seek peaceful resolutions to these agitations.
“An understudy of some of the actions and statements by IPOB and its leader will reveal that they are reactions to, or founded on fault-lines embedded in the defective structure of Nigeria Federation. Fault-lines and issues which have given rise to a plethora of agitations across the diverse regions and peoples of Nigeria.
These agitations started peacefully, but now are escalating to a point where the Presidency itself has admitted that armed conflict is being normalized across the Federation. The demands for true-federalism, self-determination and other efforts at restructuring and reworking the Nigerian State is not the call of enemies, but of children who yearn for a better future and seek the counsel of their father.
“Only a wicked father and an indolent one at that, would see these calls as a danger to his patrimony and look to crush them, rather than heed them.” The statement concludes.