The youth wing of the Ohanaeze Ndigbo has called on the federal government to release the detained leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu before the November 6 Anambra State governorship election.
The Ohanaeze youths while restating its readiness for the November 6 election, noted that it has constituted an election security monitoring team and a situation room to ensure Saturday’s poll is free, fair and credible.
This was disclosed by the Youth Wing of Ohanaeze Ndigbo after their meeting in Awka.
It called on IPOB members to reconsider the 5-day sit-at-home order in view of its adverse effects on the region’s economy.
Acting Youth Leader of the group, Onwuasoanya Jones, who made this known, said the November 6 governorship election would determine the future of Anambra State. According to him, “we are hopeful that the federal government shall pay heed to good counsel and release Nnamdi Kanu before 5th of November or at least show a reasonable readiness to do that by then.
“While we, on our part, continue to call on our IPOB comrades to reconsider the 5-day sit-at-home order, as this will adversely affect the businesses of our brothers and sisters in the South-East more than it will ever affect any other group in this country.
“We are in active consultation with our brothers to explore other ways of registering our protest without hurting our business and educational interests.
“We are happy to inform us that while no decision has been reached on that, our brothers are not insensitive to our plight and they have continued to demonstrate a clear readiness to put the interest of the Igbo before anything else.
“We have embarked on farreaching consultations and engagements with stakeholders across board, including our brothers who have taken up the choice of civil disobedience to push home their demands for a fair society.
“We have been having very healthy and fruitful discussions with them, and we have also met security heads in Anambra where we conveyed our demand for the auditing of all detention facilities to ensure that all those unjustly detained are unconditionally released.
“We have also extracted a commitment for a free, fair and credible Governorship election in Anambra. We have therefore set up the Anambra election security monitoring team and a situation room to monitor the election and ensure that the election is not only free and fair, but also seen to be so.
“This monitoring team is led by Chukwuma Okpalaezeukwu, the secretary-general of this noble organization and they shall coordinate the 50 youth per ward. “Before now, the Anambra State chapter of our organization led by Comrade Eweh Onyekachi has concluded a statewide sensitization tour aimed at mobilizing the youth of Anambra to support and participate in a free and fair governorship election. These engagements have had very encouraging outcomes.
“We are therefore encouraging all eligible Anambra electorate to file out, peacefully on the 6th of November to cast their votes for any candidate or party of their choice and to also ensure that their votes are not diverted or stolen.
“We shall be deploying our limited resources toward ensuring that this election is not stolen and only a candidate popularly voted by Ndi Anambra shall govern Anambra State.”
