Call for Ekpa’s extradition half-hearted if Kanu isn’t released,

Civil rights advocacy group, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), yesterday, described, as half-hearted and hypocritical, the demand by the Senate that Finland-based pro-Biafran agitator, Simon Ekpa, be extradited and prosecuted for the illegal Monday sit-at-home in the South east and the attendant violence, killings and economic losses recorded in the region.

The rights group wondered why the Senate failed to demand the immediate release of the illegally detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi 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, 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 on a viral video.

The group said 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.

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 and extradite Ekpa.

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 unconstitutional order was declared in 2021 to press home demands for the release of Kanu, who is being detained by the Department of State Services (DSS) and prosecuted for terrorism-related charges.

HURIWA said: “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.”