Don’t Equate IPOB With Boko Haram, U.S.-Based Groups Tell FG, Seek Kanu’s Freedom

Following President Bola Tinubu’s independence day remarks that compared the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) to Boko Haram, three human rights and self-determination advocacy groups located in the United States have harshly denounced Tinubu.

On behalf of Rising Sun, Advocates for Victims of Injustice and Discrimination (AVID) President Dr. Sylvester Onye and Ambassadors for Self-Determination jointly released a statement on Thursday, calling the President’s remarks “reckless, prejudicial, and sub judice.”

Tinubu’s comparison of IPOB to Boko Haram, the groups said, was inappropriate, particularly as Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, the group’s leader, is still on trial at the Federal High Court and IPOB’s legal appeal is still pending before the Supreme Court of Nigeria.

“It is extremely regrettable that a sitting president would make such a divisive and untrue statement while legal proceedings are still in progress,” the organizations stated.

“This statement not only violates the law, but it also clearly aims to taint the fairness of the proceedings and sway the verdict.”

According to the organizations, the president ought to concentrate on tackling Nigeria’s broader security issues instead.

President Tinubu should focus his attention on deadly armed organizations that continue to uproot communities and claim lives throughout Nigeria, the statement said, rather than obsessing about IPOB, a nonviolent self-determination movement.

Furthermore, they insisted that Nnamdi Kanu’s continuing arrest would not lessen his clout with his followers.

“We urge President Tinubu to remember that intimidation would not silence Mazi Nnamdi Kanu or make him less popular. “On the contrary, each day he is held only serves to increase his prominence,” the organizations said.

In order to make sure that democratic values are maintained, the advocacy organizations encouraged the US Congress and the US Department of State to carefully examine Nigeria’s government.

Additionally, they urged the world community to denounce President Tinubu’s “reckless and prejudicial utterances” against IPOB.

Citing earlier court decisions in support of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, the organization called for his unconditional release and the accountability of Nigerian leaders for what they claim is “ethnic persecution under the guise of national security.”

According to the statement, the government’s present position might backfire.

“All that President Tinubu has managed to demonstrate is that the more he cracks down on IPOB and imprisons Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, the more powerful and well-liked both parties grow.

According to the groups, “the light of truth cannot be extinguished by prison walls, courtroom manipulations, or propaganda.”