Several media reports indicate that President Bola Tinubu is under immense pressure to release the leader of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu.
The pressure is said to have been more intense after the Supreme Court affirmed the president’s election this week.
Before now, groups like the Ohanaeze Ndigbo and serving governors like Peter Mbah (Enugu) and Chukwuma Soludo (Anambra) had urged the president to free the IPOB leader.
Diaily Post reports that more than 30 security experts drawn from the academia, private and public sector, para-military organizations, and the ECOWAS Court of Justice recently joined their voices to the call and appealed to Tinubu to release Kanu.
They also called for the release of other political prisoners in the country “as a way of consolidating national peace and cohesion.”
The forum of security experts, under the aegis of the Institute of Security and Strategic Studies, made the call in a communique at the end of their 6th annual security executive conference in Calabar.
Parts of the communique read: “Factors responsible for separatist agitations in Nigeria include feelings of marginalization, faulty 1999 constitution that has not made it possible for the states to fulfil their role as component federating units.
“We recommend the provision of basic amenities to the people to stem high insecurity, nepotism and ineptitude of leaders, poverty, and unemployment, amongst others.
“We recommend high-level vigilance and community policing to reduce the vulnerability to kidnapping.
“We call for strengthening of Joint Taskforce, Inter-agency security meetings and briefing, training and capacity building of personnel.
“Developing a seamless communication network amongst agencies and strengthening national security strategies.”
