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The ongoing detention of Nnamdi Kanu, the IPOB leader, as Nigeria’s national elections in 2023 approach, may have an impact on the results.
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The consequences of Kanu’s protracted incarceration might have an impact on Southeast voter turnout.
Remember that Kanu was taken into custody in June 2021 after being apprehended in Kenya and being subjected to extraordinary rendition.
He was arrested at the Department of State Services, DSS, facility in Abuja upon his return to Nigeria and charged with terrorism-related offenses.
However, an appeals court in Abuja cleared the IPOB leader of the terrorism charges last week.
Abubakar Malami, the Attorney General of the Federation, had suggested that the IPOB leader will remain in custody despite the decision.
Malami clarified that Kanu had just been released from custody, not cleared of all accusations, and that further charges would be made against the IPOB.
If Kanu is not released and Biafra is not realized, IPOB has already promised to ensure that elections do not take place in the Southeast.
Later, the organization soft pedaled, emphasizing that it is unrelated to the general election of 2023.
Okechukwu Isiguzoro, the Secretary-General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, expressed concern about his ongoing arrest and feared that youth in the Southeast would rebel against the conduct of elections in 2023.
Isiguzoro requested the Federal Government to pardon Kanu in his conversation with Cezzatech in order to placate the Southeast’s residents.
In order to ensure that Kanu and IPOB members put an end to the Biafra movement, he told President Muhammadu Buhari that significant leaders in the Southeast are prepared to speak with the Federal Government.
Isiguzoro asserts that there is concern that Nnamdi Kanu’s release could threaten the 2023 elections, as well as concern that his detention could have an impact on those elections.
“I must be clear that people who wear the shoes are aware of where the shoes pinch them. Since Kanu’s arrest, the Southeast has been plagued by security issues that have lasted for more than a year.
“The people of the Southeast are pleading with the Federal Government to take the less expensive alternative of reducing instability in the Southeast, and they should cease appealing the Appeal Court’s ruling,” they said.
“The Federal Government should think about engaging in discussion; the Southeast’s citizens are prepared to do so, and they will exert pressure on Kanu to do so as well. Igbo elites like Emeka Anyioku, Mbalulike Amaechi, and other elite Igbo people are prepared to correct Kanu, but discussion is necessary to ensure that the Southeast’s deteriorating economy, which is linked to ghost Mondays, is resolved. The government should take this into account and use dialogue to resolve this issue in the Southeast rather than spending billions on the fight against insecurity.
“With regard to the polls, it’s possible that the youths would rebel and demand that there be no vote if Kanu is not freed. We are all aware of the consequences if there is no election in the Southeast.
“The Federal Government must correctly and firmly agree with Igbo leaders that Kanu and other members of pro-Biafra organisations who are detained should receive welfare packages. The Federal Government could speak with IPOB members and offer them some welfare benefits if it can heal rebels in the North and reintegrate them into society. They’d stop thinking about Biafra because of this.
“The Federal Government should choose discussion as the easiest and least expensive means of resolving this insecurity issue. Instead of us being the target of dialogue, the Federal Government ought to be demonstrating a desire for it.
How would you give over a stable nation without placating the Southeast’s residents, as Buhari has stated he intends to do, without making Nigeria more cohesive and secure? We are requesting that he give them one more opportunity. He and his boys should be granted amnesty so that the election can be held peacefully.
“Ohanaeze has been requesting Kanu’s release not because we are IPOB members, but rather because the tranquillity we had been experiencing in the Southeast for the previous seven years as insecurity ravaged the North abruptly came to an end. Through communication, we can overcome this fabricated insecurity barrier. Therefore, we are pleading with Buhari, the nation’s founding father, to consider pardoning Kanu and opening up communication with Ndigbo in order to ensure a peaceful election in 2023.
