NEWS
‘Nigeria May Never Know Peace’ – Bishop Nwokolo Declares Over Nnamdi Kanu’s Continued Detention
The Bishop of the Diocese on the Niger, Rt. Rev. Owen Nwokolo, has criticized the continued detention of the embattled leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.
The cleric who asserted that Kanu’s further detention is resulting in more bloodshed in the Southeast region of the country said Nigeria may never know peace if the government, through the Supreme Court, insisted on sending the separatist to jail.
According to Nwokolo, sending Kanu to jail equals sending many Igbos to jail, a development he considered a call for more violence.
The bishop expressed his belief that resolving Mazi Kanu’s case politically would be more effective than through the courts.
Regarding the recent Supreme Court ruling on Kanu, the bishop stated that it could have brought some calm to the people of the region during the festive period. However, since the apex court ruled differently, there seemed to be no other options available.
Nevertheless, Nwokolo emphasized that this case was not an ordinary one, but rather a politically motivated one that required a political resolution.
The cleric also placed some blame on the people of the South-East for not uniting their voices in demanding the release of the IPoB leader. He advised that the people of the region should strive to work together for a common cause.
He said: “We thought that the Supreme Court would use the release of Nnamdi Kanu to calm the nerves of the people of the region but the reverse was the case, and one cannot do anything because the highest court in the and has spoken.
“However, the people in the South-East should learn to work together because united we stand, divided we fall. We can work together to make our zone peaceful, and progressive, and we must show empathy to things that are happening to others. We can also, in that unity, speak to the government of the day because the way it sees it, Nnamdi Kanu’s case is political, not an ordinary case.
“Political cases like this are handled politically. Courts cannot adjudicate on it without causing more problems. This is because if you imprison Kanu, if you send him to jail, you are sending many Igbos to jail, and the country may never know peace. If you release him you have released many Igbo people.
“The more they keep him in detention the more they are unsettling the South-East, and Nigeria does not need such distraction. We should come together as Igbos, speak with one voice go to the Federal Government and ask them to leave the young man, then other things can follow. That is my view on the matter.”
The Chairman of Abia State Judicial Panel of Inquiry on the recovery of Government Property and Funds, Justice Florence Doruoha-Igwe (Rtd) has issued a Bench Warrant on Anthony Agbazuere and Don Ubani, who served as Chief of Staff and Deputy Chief of Staff, respectively, to former Governor Okezie Ikpeazu.
This is even as Don Ubani has said that he never received any invitation from the panel.
The Bench Warrant on Agbazuere according to Justice Duruoha-Igwe was because of his alleged failure to appear before the Panel to give evidence in respect to a Toyota Hilux Land Cruiser alleged to be in his possession since he left office.
Justice Doruoha-Igwe (Rtd) who adjourned the matter to January 24, 2024, directed that Agbazuere should be arrested and produced for further cross examination.
The Panel said that the Bench warrant on the former Deputy Chief of Staff to former Governor Okezie Ikpeazu, Don Ubani, was because of his alleged failure to appear before the Panel and his inability to file a response to a notice served him on 30th of November, 2023.
Speaking before adjourning the matter to 24th of this month, the Chairman Justice Doruoha-Igwe (Rtd) directed that Ubani should be arrested and produced on January 24, 2024, to defend himself.
But reacting to the development, the former Deputy Chief of Staff to former Governor Okezie Ikpeazu, Don Ubani said he was shocked to read that a Bench Warrant had been issued on him, saying that he was never invited by the Panel.
“I am shocked to read that a Bench Warrant could be issued on me without ever being invited to a Panel either by writing or even through a telephone call,” said Ubani who also described the arrest order as ‘false propaganda and political witch-hunt’.
But the former Deputy Chief of Staff also promised to appear before the Panel of Enquiry if he received an invitation.
The National Judicial Council, NJC, has clarified that no date has yet been fixed for the swearing-in of the newly appointed eleven Justices of the Supreme Court.
The Council said that the purported news by an Abuja based media organization suggesting Monday January 16 for the inauguration of the Justices did not emanate from it.
A statement by the NJC’s Director of Information, Barrister Soji Oye clarified that neither the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Hon Justice Olukayode Ariwoola, who is the NJC Chairman, nor the Council itself authored or endorsed the purported date.
While asking members of the public to disregard the news, the NJC said that the date for the swearing-in of the Justices would be made public at the appropriate time.
NJC’s statement read in part, “The attention of the National Judicial Council has been drawn to a trending story purportedly informing the public that the newly appointed 11 Supreme Court Justices would be sworn in on Monday 16 January 2023.
“The Council by this medium expressly denies the news as it did not emanate from the Council or the Office of the Chief Justice of Nigeria and Chairman of the National Judicial Council, Hon. Justice Olukayode Ariwoola.
“The date for the swearing-in of the Justices will be made public at the appropriate time. Members of the public should please disregard the trending news.”
The Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria, MACBAN, Kaduna State, has demanded a probe of alleged extra-judicial killing of their members.
WORLD WIDE GIST recalls that an online report alleged that 11 decomposing corpses of Fulani natives, from Tulde Fulbe, Ladduga Grazing Reserve in Kachia Local Government Area of Kaduna State, were on Monday discovered in a forest.
They were alleged to have been killed by the Nigerian Army.
But the Headquarters, 1 Division of the Nigerian Army, in a statement on Thursday night, by Lt. Col Musa Yahaya, Acting Deputy Director, Army Public Relations, denied involvement of the Army in the said killing.
However, in a statement by MACBAN Kaduna chairman, Haruna Usman Tugga, he insisted that the organisation as an umbrella body of Fulbe in Nigeria received with serious concern the information.
The statement condemned what they described as “extra-judicial killing of law-abiding Fulbe youths of Tilde Fulbe community and other areas of Ladduga Grazing Reserve in Kachia Local Government Area of the state by military personnel at Kachia, headquarters of Kachia Local Government Area of Kaduna State.”
He said they called an emergency executive meeting of the association to get to the root of the matter and find out the remote causes, perpetrators and names of the victims.
-
BUSINESS4 months agoBlack Market Dollar To Naira Exchange Rate Today 6th January 2024
-
BUSINESS4 months agoBlack Market Dollar To Naira Exchange Rate Today 5th January 2024
-
GIST4 months agoPolice confirm abduction of 10 persons in Jalingo, Taraba State capital
-
ENTERTAINMENT4 months ago‘She Got To My House, And I Accepted Her Wholly’ – Yemi My Lover Speaks On Relationship With Tope Alabi
-
GIST4 months agoBoko Haram kills 5 in Yobe
-
GIST4 months agoKwara: FRSC recorded reduced road traffic crashes in 2023 – Sector Commander
-
EDUCATION5 months agoVisa Ban: UK Varsities Hit With Low Revenue As Nigerians Turn To Canada
-
GIST4 months agoOver 240 people missing after Japan earthquake