As President Muhammdu Buhari recuperates from an unknown illness abroad, a socio-cultural group from the South-east has urged the acting President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo to free some detained public personalities.
Professor Yemi Osinbajo
The Ohanaeze Ndigbo youth wing has called on the Acting President, Yemi Osinbajo to release all political detainees and freedom fighters held behind bars for expressing their ideological beliefs.
The group made the call in a press statement issued in Abuja by its President-General, Okechukwu Isiguzoro, on Thursday.
Isiguzoro said it was morally wrong and adversarial for the federal government to remain adamant to calls made by well-meaning Nigerians and groups seeking the release of the detainees, especially for health reasons.
The youth leader further said that the federal government was indirectly brewing a Nigerian version of the ‘Arab spring’ by its refusal to listen to the people and to change the alleged cabal that is holding the country hostage.
He said: “We are calling on the Acting-President, Yemi Osinbajo, to release all the political detainees and freedom fighters such as El-Zakzaky, Nnamdi Kanu and others; who are languishing in prison custody because of their quest for self-determination.
“We call on the federal government to look seriously into this matter before it gets out of hand.
“The country needs to be restructured. The government needs to listen to the citizenry, and the cabal that has been holding this government ransom must change.
“We are going to tumble down this country, if the government fails to listen to us. We will call out the organized labour, the student bodies, and all the nationality youth organizations of this country to come out en-masse for another ‘Arab Spring’ in Nigeria.
“As a partners and stakeholders in the Nigerian project, we are saying that the government should do its work and by so doing must also listen to the people to know where they are getting it wrong for them to correct their policies that are very adversary to the people.”