Following the life in prison sentence passed on IPOB leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, by Justice James Omotoso on Thursday, OKEY MADUFORO speaks with the Ex-Ohanaeze Vice President, Damian Okeke Ogene, who said the sentence marks a sad day for the Igbo nation
How did the Igbo nation feel about the judgement?
How else do you want us as Igbos to feel about this? Do Nigerians expect us to roll out our drums in celebration of the life jail sentence on our son and brother Mazi Nnamdi Kanu? It has become clear that all the efforts of our leaders, Governors and late Dr Chukwuemeka Ezeife and late Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu to secure the release Kanu are in vain, and that means we as Igbos have not been reintegrated into the polity.
We as Ohaneze Ndigbo and the entire Igbo race are saddened by this and we wonder how someone was kidnapped in faraway Kenya which is even an international crime and nothing was said about it and all that they saw is terrorism. This is a manifestation of the position of Igbos in Nigeria and the level of hatred Nigerians have on the Igbos.
The outcome of the judgment was expected and we are not surprised that it went this way but Nigerians should be prepared to face the consequences of this judgement.
The international community is watching the country and studying the situation and this is what we see in Nigeria and when they arrest Boko Haram terrorists, they call them repentant terrorists the same with bandits. Go to the North-East today the killings and kidnappings and arson have continued and even on the day Kanu’s was sentenced there was similar incident in Kwara State which led to the closure of schools in four local government areas of that state and none of these bandits have been arrested or prosecuted. They called them repentant terrorists but in the case of Nnamdi Kanu it is treason and tantamount to life imprisonment.
We still have the Courts of Appeal and the Supreme Court so there is hope for Kanu?
What do expect from the Appeal Court or Supreme Court? It would still go the same way be it Appeal or Supreme Court so it is a sad day for Igbos. You know how long it took the Nigerian judiciary to deliver judgement on this matter and you know how many judges that had presided over this matter and those that handed off the case from the time of late President Buhari to date.
This one may take a decade and I do not think that he would get justice in the matter.
In Ohaneze, you demanded for a political solution to save the South-East insecurity, can the judgment achieve that?
The only way we can checkmate the avalanche of insecurity in Igbo land is to release him but with this judgement the hoodlums would surely remain in the bushes and continue with what they are doing.
It is a wind that blows the Igbo nation any good and it is a sad commentary for our polity as a country. We shall continue to press and demand for the release of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu without conditions.
Kanu has been sentenced to life imprisonment and last time Simon Ekpa was sentenced to six years imprisonment by the court in Finland. What does that portend for the Igbo nation?
Mazi Nnamdi Kanu we know but Simon Ekpa we do not know. Ekpa called it content creation by sponsoring those killings and arson.
But in the case of Kanu we know him as the leader of Indigenous People of Biafra IPOB and we can understand where he is coming from.
Those issues that Kanu raised are issues that we as Ndigbo have been fighting to correct and nothing has been done about that.
The issues are still with us and we need to face facts because the facts always face us and if we as a country fail to address those issues there may not be an end to the agitations.
These agitations are everywhere in the South-East, South-South and South-West and the earlier we address them the better for us all. For us as Ndigbo, we shall continue to make a case about those issues and for us as Ndigbo we are still not integrated into this country.
