Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, the leading Igbo socio-cultural organization, has urged the Federal Government to use Nigeria’s diplomatic links with Finland to extradite Biafran agitator Simon Ekpa, whom the military has charged with instigating the unrest in the Southeast.
On Tuesday, General Christopher Musa, the Chief of Defence Staff, claimed that Ekpa, who is currently based in Finland, was undermining the work of security officers in the Southeast.
Speaking on Tuesday in the House of Representatives, Musa said that “Simon Ekpa is sabotaging our efforts in the Southeast,” adding that the agitator was using Finland as a shield.
However, the Secretary General of Ohanaeze, Ambassador Okey Emuchay, said that Ohanaeze supported Musa’s idea in a statement made on Wednesday in an interview with Punch Newspaper.
He stated that everyone was concerned with the deteriorating security situation in the Southeast region following lockdown imposed by the factional leader of the proscribed separatist group Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).
Expressing worries regarding the security concerns in the Southeast, Emuchay said, “So, the statement yesterday at the hearing of the House of Representatives tells the story as to what we have been saying all along. It is a matter for the Federal Government of Nigeria to handle, as Ohanaeze or the states in the Southeast are subordinate to the Federal Government.
“The Federal Government has a diplomatic relationship with Finland, they (Finland) have an embassy in Abuja, and that diplomatic channel is what Ohanaeze is asking to be activated. Ohanaeze is very pleased that the Chief of Defence Staff made a public pronouncement on the matter of Simon Ekpa and we are happy with it.”
Naija News recalls that Ekpa had insisted on the continuation of the lock-down imposed in Southeastern states by the separatist group following the refusal of the federal government to release the group’s leader Nnamdi Kanu despite court orders directing he be released.
