A prominent Igbo leader and politician has disclosed that a great majority of Igbos are angry with President Muhammadu Buhari over the continued incarceration of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.
Speaking at a religious function at Onitsha, Anambra State, Chief Victor Umeh, former National Chairman of APGA described the unending detention of the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra by the Federal Government as unjust.
Revealing that the Igbo nation is saddened by the development, Umeh said President Buhari inadvertently made the handling of the Mazi Nnamdi Kanu case too complex to handle.
“They treat Nnamdi Kanu’s issue as a personal thing”, Umeh noted, “It is not. Kanu enjoys the solidarity and sympathy of Igbo people because they believe he fights for them and anything he says, they do.”
Continuing, Umeh stated, “He is calling for the de-marginalisation of Ndigbo. He wants equality for all Nigerians. The Federal Government thinks it is Kanu they are dealing with, not knowing that they are dealing with all of us, the entire Igbo nation.”
The frontline politician of Igbo extraction said he had earlier told the Federal Government that its handling of the Kanu case was not the best, but he however acknowledged his timely advice was not respected.
As a result, he said the Kanu matter has ballooned into an issue which has become too big for Nigeria to handle.
“It is pertinent for the Federal Government to realise that they are dealing with the entire Igbo nation and that has become so difficult for them to handle.”
“The issue of Kanu is a simple thing to handle if they listen to the yearnings of Igbo people to ensure justice in the Nigerian nation.
The former APGA chief was at Onitsha to attend the 20th year Episcopacy celebration of the Most Rev. Dr Valerian Okeke, the Archbishop of Onitsha Catholic Archdiocese at the Basilica of Holy Trinity.
In a related development, the attire worn by Nnamdi Kanu and deteriorating health occupied centre stage when he emerged in court Wednesday.
His lawyer, Mike Ozekheme who urged the dismissal of the 15-count charge filed by the Federal Government told the court that his client has been made to wear the same attire since hearing began.
He said the eyes of client were failing because the DSS in whose custody he has been placed have refused to return his eye glasses to him.
Claims that Kanu might be going blind might become a major talking point and a source worry among Igbos in the days to come.
The IPOB leader is revered in the South East, with many insisting that he is fighting the cause of the Igbos in Nigeria.
Igbo intellectuals, leaders and sociocultural groups are hoping there would be a political solution, but that hasn’t happened under the watch of the President.