Civil rights advocacy group, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), has described the Nigerian Senate’s call for the extradition and prosecution of Biafran agitator, Simon Ekpa, from Finland as a futile effort without the release of Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) leader, Nnamdi Kanu.
The rights group wondered why the Senate failed to demand the immediate release of Kanu, whose charges by the immediate past President Muhammadu Buhari administration were dismissed by the Court of Appeal.
HURIWA, in a statement by its National Coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko on Thursday, however, said that the upper chamber of the National Assembly must also use its legislative power to compel the executive, led by President Bola Tinubu, to arrest and prosecute former Niger Delta agitator, Asari Dokubo, for illegal possession of firearms and threat to Igbo people.
According to the group, Dokubo must be arrested for operating a secret army, which he is using to oppress the Nigerian citizenry despite the properly constituted and constitutionally recognised Nigerian Army already in force.
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Recall that the red chamber had, on Wednesday, condemned the Monday sit-at-home in the South East and asked the Federal Government to collaborate with the Finnish government for Ekpa’s extradition.
The Senate also resolved to invite the Minister of Foreign Affairs (when appointed) and relevant stakeholders to carry out thorough investigation, as well as bring other sponsors of the act to book.
“The Senate will be hypocritical if it fails to use the template applied to Ekpa to demand the immediate arrest of Dokubo and disband his private army.
“The extradition of Ekpa is what we had advocated persistently, and the Senate’s call is a welcome development. However, Dokubo must not be spared, but arrested. Security agencies must immediately end the barbaric killings and violence in the South-East,” HURIWA stated.
