‘Extraditing Ekpa, without releasing Kanu meaningless’, HURIWA tells Senate

Civil rights advocacy group, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), has told the Nigerian Senate that calls for the extradition and prosecution of Biafran agitator, Simon Ekpa, from Finland will be a futile effort without the release of leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu.

The advocacy group which reacted to demands by the Senate that the self-styled Prime Minister of the Biafran Republic Government in Exile be extradited and prosecuted over his order for a Monday sit-at-home in the South-East region, said the call was not only half-hearted but hypocritical following their refusal to sanction the release of Kanu.

In a statement on Thursday issued by HURIWA’s National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, the group wondered why the Senate failed to demand for the immediate release of Kanu even as several courts in the country, including the Court of Appeal, have granted him bail.

Read also: HURIWA petitions EU, US, UK, others over Nigerian govt’s failure to arrest Asari-Dokubo

“The Senate will be deemed to be populated with opportunistic anarchists and hypocrites if they fail to use the template applied to Simon Ekpa to demand the immediate release of Nnamdi Kanu and the arrest of Asari Dokubo and the disbandment of his private Army.

“The extradition of Simon Ekpa is what we had advocated for persistently and the Senate’s call is a welcome development.

“However, the call is hypocritical if they can’t press for the release of Kanu. Asari Dokubo too must not be spared but be arrested and the security agencies must immediately put an end to the barbaric killings and unprecedented orgy of violence turning the South-East geopolitical zone in a bloody field,” the statement added.

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