News Investigators/ Rep. Obi Aguocha (APC-Abia) has reiterated calls for a political settlement to secure the release of the leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu.
In a statement on Sunday, Aguocha cautioned against legal moves to convert the life imprisonment sentence currently being served by Kanu for terrorism and other crimes to death by hanging.
He said that while Kanu had approached the appellate court seeking to upturn the sentence and secure his release, a counter appeal had been filed to convert the sentence to death by hanging.
According to him, there are court cases that end as legal records, while others become national omen; Kanu’s matter has moved firmly into the second category.
The lawmaker, who represents Ikwuano/Umuahia North/Umuahia South Federal Constituency of Abia, said that the matter was tied to questions of belonging, justice, fairness, and the place of the Igbo people in the Nigerian federation.
“What is now before the Court of Appeal in Abuja is not merely a dispute over conviction and sentence; it is a fierce contest over law, power, symbolism, and the emotional temperature of an entire Igbo Nation.
“I reiterate my call to the APC led federal government for a political solution; a stitch in time saves nine.
“I also echo loudly the wishes and aspirations of people of the Igbo extraction on this matter not because the law should be ignored, but because the Nigerian state cannot afford to pretend that the consequences of this case are only legal, they are emotional, political and national as well,” he said.
He explained that in the South-East, the matter was a recurring pressure point that sat inside town hall and political meetings, market conversations, church discussions, and the private calculations of voters, seeking solution to the Biafra agitation.
Aguocha, who is the Chairman, House Committee on Monitoring and Evaluation of House Committees, said that a legal victory could be won and still leave behind a gapping political debt for the nation.
“A sentence can be secured and still fail to settle the deeper question of belonging; in the South-East, many of us interpret the continued detention of Kanu as evidence that Nigeria is yet to find the right language for peace and reconciliation.
“That is why the phrase ‘Nothing Must Happen to Mazi Nnamdi Kanu’ carries so much weight as it is not merely a plea for mercy, it is an expression of fear, frustration, and standards in the administration of criminal justice,” he said.
NAN
