United States-based lawyer, High Chief Owolabi Salis, has urged the Federal Government to release Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, from detention. Salis, an Ikorodu-born Lagosian who contested for governorship in 2019 under the Alliance for Democracy (AD), emphasized the urgent need to free Kanu, citing his prolonged detention and deteriorating health.
“Remember that the embattled young man had languished in detention since 2015, during which he had been in and out of the hospital due to his health, which had been gravely imperiled. Moreover, there had been injunctions from the court, ruling that he should be released,” Salis stated. He added, “I am therefore of the strong opinion that Kanu should not be held a minute longer, but rather be released immediately without delay in the interest of justice.”
Salis argued that releasing Kanu would not only serve justice but also foster unity and stability. “Politically, by releasing Kanu, Tinubu would be endearing the general mass of the Igbo not only to himself but his administration with the immensely unifying and integrative effect for national growth, peace, and stability, just as the presidential Prerogative of Mercy would also go a long way in availing the much-needed balm to erase the hitherto lingering wound of the Biafran experience.”
He also highlighted the cultural significance of such a gesture, noting, “The gesture would also be in keeping with the genetic and culturally endemic passion of the Yoruba for fairness and justice and their historical antecedents as the earliest race to embrace Western education and its associated system of Western liberal democracy and belief in the rule of law.”
Salis appealed directly to President Tinubu, referencing his past as a NADECO activist and his commitment to the rule of law. “It will also align with your antecedents as a NADECO activist during the harrowing era of military despotism, and your unflagging pursuit of the rule of law, especially through the several legal litigations initiated by you against the prevailing powers of the moment in the pursuit of social justice.”
Salis proposed that Kanu's release could be contingent on signing a legally binding affidavit of good behavior. “Government could tie Kanu’s release on the legally binding provision of signing an affidavit of good behavior, shunning any form of incitement, divisive and hate pronouncements if released. I’m sure that by now, the IPOB leader would have learned a lot going by his severely traumatizing experience in the course of his protracted spell of incarceration. I have no doubt that he has already turned a new leaf.”
He urged the government and citizens to move past prejudices against the Igbo and work towards national unity. “Enjoining the government and the citizens to shun every vestige of prejudice which possibly might be harbored against the Igbo and rather accept them as fellow brethren in the drive towards a greater Nigeria,” Salis said, while also advising the Igbo to abandon separatist sentiments. “Our Igbo brethren should rather harness the immensely God-given potentials for which they are popularly known towards the noble task of lifting the nation to a higher paradigm of growth and progress.”
