The United Igbo Elders Council (UNIEC) has called on the Federal Government to unconditionally release the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, along with all political prisoners.
The elders also demanded an immediate end to unlawful arrests, detentions, and extrajudicial killings across the country, as well as the lifting of economic blockades against Eastern Nigeria.
The group’s demands were conveyed in a statement released on Saturday by Prof. Obasi Igwe, Director of Media and Publicity, and Alpha Justice, Coordinator-General of UNIEC.
The statement emphasized the need for peace and stability through restructuring, regionalism, and a referendum, urging the government to adopt these measures as a foundation for meaningful development in Nigeria.
The elders also stressed the importance of reopening the Eastern ports to stimulate economic growth and development in the region and beyond.
It read: “It is an indisputable fact that by mid-2015, there was not a single insurgency or war to overthrow the Federal Government or procure a Biafra anywhere in Igbo society and none today, except the one manufactured by a tyrant that made sure that such a war existed, with shoot-to-kill or shoot-at-sight orders openly issued against promising innocent youngsters in full view of all the world, in part to punish the Igbo for their sundry sins.
“We, therefore, demand for the unconditional release of all political prisoners, including the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, and his colleagues, with an immediate end to all manner of unlawful, hooded, night and secret arrests, detentions and extrajudicial killings.
“Mazi Nnamdi Kanu has been tortured, victimized and dehumanized beyond measure and it confers to a nation no value to continue to keep an innocent citizen in jail.
“Opening up the Igbo/Eastern Ports system equally spills over and triggers development across the Eastern Middle Belt and beyond, while the continual lockdown of the Igbo/Eastern Ports is also having cumulative negative tolls on the entire Eastern half of the country down to Maiduguri.
“Nigeria demands restructuring based on single nationality regions side by side with multi-ethnic nationality regions, and the number in each category to be determined by competitive regional consideration.
“No economic policy or blueprint, however brilliantly formulated, can work beyond a marginal neocolonial glass ceiling without a correct political economy or foundation, otherwise a basis on which the superstructure stands.”