From Chidi Nnadi, Enugu
Director General of Voice of Nigeria (VON), Mr Osita Okechukwu, yesterday defended the non-arrest by security agencies of the leaders of Arewa youth groups who gave Igbo October 1 to quit the North.
Okechukwu claimed that the non-arrest of “Yerima Shettima and other leaders of the Arewa youths for their arrant, unpatriotic, unconstitutional and provocative quit notice was strategic,” pointing out that “arrest and detention wittingly and unwittingly make agitators celebrities.”
The VON DG reacted to the speech of the Ohanaeze Ndigbo President General, Chief John Nnia Nwodo, during the inauguration of 100-man advisory committee on Economic and Political Affairs, in Enugu at the weekend, where the group expressed worries over inability of the police to effect arrest of Arewa youth leaders.
Okechukwu disagreed with Nwodo that security agencies were playing double standards by not arresting Arewa youth leaders.
He argued that the “arrest and long detention of provocative, unpatriotic and unknown Nnamdi Kanu of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) made him a celebrity” pointing out that the detention of Kanu “gave rise to disgusting and sordid situation in the country today.
“Detention made Kanu with no fixed address become an instant celebrity. Had Kanu not been arrested, his agitation could have fizzled out unnoticed.”
On whether he was holding brief for the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Okechukwu said: “I didn’t consult the IGP or any security officer for that matter, but common sense tells me that.
“The security chiefs might have reasoned that it is better to allow the storm to boil over, instead of creating another celebrity. As time is the healer of all wounds.
“I’m surprised why Chief Nnia Nwodo, our president general, who loves us, the millions of Igbo who live in the North more than ourselves did not worry, why Nnamdi Kanu was not rearrested after serial violation of court order.
“Is it not double standard to allow somebody who flagrantly violates court order to move about freely? If by the same token, Kanu is not rearrested, I bet you that his sponsors will thin down.
“I have great and tremendous respect for Chief Nwodo and was part of his campaign against Prof Chinwike Ejike, who incidentally hails from my area.”
The DG, however, said in times like this, prominent people like Chief Nwodo should be more reticent, pragmatic and strategic, stressing that “we have passed this road before and we know that the fault lines can be strengthened.”
He advised Nwodo not to bother about the unknown Arewa youths or fringe groups in the North, but listen more to the likes of Emir of Katsina, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, Arewa Consultative Forum, Northern Governors Forum, the Acting President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo, and by extension the Federal Government.