President Tinubu: Seize the moment and release. MAZI NNAMDI KANU, Chief Chekwas Okorie.
With a deep sense of responsibility and patriotism, I urgently urge President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to seize the moment and grant or facilitate the release of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu and his fellow prisoners of conscience from prolonged confinement in Nigerian prisons.
I am persuaded by the new opportunity provided by Nigeria’s Chief Justice, Hon. Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, whose administrative intervention prompted the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court to reassign the protracted suit originally filed by the Federal Government against Mazi Nnamdi Kanu on November 23, 2015, in an Abuja Magistrate Court. Since 2015, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu has suffered greatly, culminating in his exceptional rendition from Kenya on June 27, 2021.
It is well known that the functioning of the law will result in this matter being re-instituted. This window gives President Tinubu the authority to ask the Attorney General and Minister of Justice to enter a nolle prosequi in the Nnamdi Kanu case, discharge and acquit him, and bring an end to his vexing detention. I appreciate that President Tinubu took on the responsibility for Mazi Nnamdi Kanu’s unlawful detention, but because government is a continuum, it is up to the president to resolve this issue.
There is no doubt that the case of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu is a major domestic and worldwide embarrassment for Nigeria. Mazi Nnamdi Kanu has become a symbol of the Igbo Nation’s battle for equality, justice, and fairness. I dare to say definitely that the typical Igbo person in Nigeria and the diaspora feels the anguish of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu’s unjustifiable continuous suffering for simply speaking out for his people.
The economic and security stability that Mazi Nnamdi Kanu’s liberation will bring to the Southeast geopolitical zone cannot be quantified. President Tinubu may never realize how much political mileage he will get by handing Mazi Nnamdi Kanu freedom at this moment. I urge President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to consider this petition with dispassion and compassion.
