From Jeff Amechi Agbodo, Onitsha
South-East zone of the Liberty Organisation (CLO) has condemned the incarceration of leader of Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Mr. Nnamdi Kanu and other pro-Biafra agitators.
The CLO, however, called for the unconditional release of Kanu and all pro-Biafra agitators in detention.
The call was made yesterday by South-East Chairman of the CLO, Aloysius Attah, during a press conference after its zonal meeting in Onitsha, Anambra state.
He said the agitation for an independent state of Biafra was borne out of the scars of the past which he said were yet to be addressed.
Attah said: “Experience the world over has shown that the use of force in quelling such agitations emboldens the proponents to wax stronger in their zeal. The more, they are killed, the more their spirits are gingered to forge ahead.”
He added that the agitation for self determination or rights of the people to existence were recognized globally, once the proponents doesn’t use or advocate violence to achieve their goals.
“In 1993, the federal government signed and ratified the international Covenant on Civil and Political Rights of 1976 whose article 1 provided the citizens rights to self determination as well as article 20 of the Africa Charter on Human and people’s rights of 1981 ratified and domesticated by Nigeria in 1983.
The CLO zonal chairman urged security agents to give pro-Biafra agitators protection while they carry out rallies and ensure that such programme were not hijacked by criminal elements.
and should not be mowed down by happy trigger happy and blood thirsty agents in uniform.
While condemning in its totality, what he described as killings and bloodshed of innocent pro-Biafra agitators, Attah said: “The killings of Biafrans agitators should stop forthwith. The present panel set up by the federal government through the Army to probe such killings is nothing but a mockery of the whole system because one cannot be a judge in his own case’’.
“We have resolved to say that, ‘enough is enough’. Starting from Anambra state whose guber election is slated for this year, we are poised to critically engage government through all the ingredients of civil society participation which includes advocacy, litigations, protests, rallies etc.
He demanded a full disclosure of the financial accruals and expenditures of governments of the five South east states both serving and former governors. ‘We shall go to court to achieve this, if they fail to comply’.