Release Nnamdi Kanu, FFK, Sambo Dasuki – Buhari Urged

As the nation marks its De­mocracy Day and President Mu­hammadu Buhari’s first year in office, Human Rights Writ­ers Association Of Nigeria (HURIWA) has asked the Presi­dent to release all political prisoners in­cluding Mr Nnamdi Kanu, Leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).

Condemning the continuous detention and trial of Kanu, HURIWA also stated the failure of Buhari’s administration to re­spect due process of the law in the cases involving such po­litical opponents like erstwhile Director of Media of the Peoples Democratic Party, Olisa Metuh; former Aviation Minister, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode and the im­mediate past National Security Adviser to former President Goodluck Jonathan, Col Sambo Dasuki (rtd).

“In January this year, two courts granted bail to the Leader of the Indige­nous People of Biafra (IPOB) Mr Nnamdi Kanu, including a Federal High Court in Abuja but the President personally granted extensive me­dia interviews where­by he prejudiced and intimidated judges to steer clear of grant­ing bails to the duo of Kanu and Dasuki for purportedly com­mitting in his words serious offences”, the body said.

In a press state­ment, HURIWA noted that, “Ever since that Presidential Media Chat, the courts and the judges have con­sistently failed to use their powers under Section 6 of the Con­stitution to compel the executive to com­ply with the bail or­ders.

“Just as the Court of Appeal has followed the body language of Mr President by af­firming the denial of bail to Kanu whose so -called offence is for calling for the actu­alisation of a separate state out of Nigeria to be called Biafra to be composed of the South East if a refer­endum agrees with this aspiration”.

HURIWA said it considers Kanu as well as other named detainees as political prisoner who should be released forthwith. It maintained that the Universal Declara­tion of Human rights guarantees the rights to freedom of speech including the rights to agitate for separate statehood.

Source:
http://www.thebreakingtimes.com/release-nnamdi-kanu-ffk-sambo-dasuki-buhari-urged/