Following the conviction and life jail sentence of the detained leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, Igbo women have said the country seems to have a different set of laws applicable only to the South-East region.
Chronicle NG reports that the trial judge, Justice James Omotosho, in his judgment, found Kanu guilty on all seven counts of terrorism charges the federal government slammed against him.
The IPOB leader was thereafter, sentenced to life imprisonment.
According to the women speaking on the platform of the Igbo Women Assembly (IWA), the decision was not founded on fair argument.
IWA National President Lolo Nneka Chimezie stated that the “judgment had been written even before the trial started.”
Lolo Chimezie, who was present in court, voiced sympathy with Kanu, stating that he is innocent of the charges brought against him.
“This is unacceptable, and we are kicking against the injustices that are being meted out on Igbo people.
“It is as if the Nigerian government from 2014 to 2019 created a different law for the Igbos. The law they apply to the Igbos is not the same as the law they apply to other Nigerians, which has played out today (yesterday).
“The real terrorists are being rehabilitated and put back into the military, while they cannot even negotiate with IPOB, which is harmless in its demands. And their demands are legitimate.”
The Igbo Community Association of Abuja also decried Kanu’s conviction, emphasizing that he was not given the opportunity to defend himself before the ruling.
Engr. Ikenna Ellis-Ezenekwe, President General of the Igbo Community Association, stated, “The judiciary may have decided on its own to unravel the painstaking peace achieved in the Southeast by its singular act of declaring Kanu guilty without affording him the opportunity to defend himself.
“The Igbo community in Abuja is saddened and disappointed by this ruling.
“We call on the spirit of patriotism and on patriotic Nigerians to rise and speak up against the continued detention of Kanu.”
