Fides Media Living the Faith
By Ifeanyi Ndukwe
The Ohanaeze Ndigbo’s Secretary-General, Okechukwu Isiguzoro, has urged the President-elect, Bola Tinubu, and Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State, to facilitate the immediate release of the Eze Igbo of Ajao Estate, Lagos, Chief Frederick Nwajagu, from detention.
Nwajagu was arrested and detained following his alleged comment about inviting the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, to Lagos to protect the Igbo in the wake of the intimidation and harassment of the Igbo in Lagos during and after the recent general elections in the country.
The apex Igbo socio-cultural organization said Nwajagu was only making a joke.
Isiguzoro said Tinubu and Sanwo-Olu should facilitate Nwajagu’s release in the interest of national unity and reconciliation.
Recall that Nwajagu was arrested after the 2023 governorship election because he threatened to invite IPOB over to Lagos State following the attacks on Igbo-populated markets in the state.
Despite several appeals from concerned bodies, the Eze-Igbo has not been released, weeks after the election.
However, Isiguzoro said Nwajagu only joked like former Lagos State National Union of Road Transport Workers, NURTW Chairman, Musiliu Akinsanya, a.k.a. M.C. Oluomo, did during the election.
‘The leadership of Ohanaeze Ndigbo is still worried that a traditional ruler, Eze-Igbo, in Lagos State, who was only cracking jokes, has not been released.
‘He has told us through his emissary that he was only cracking a joke, and we want to tell the governor of Lagos State and the president-elect that Igbos are begging on behalf of Eze-Igbo that they should facilitate his release because he was only cracking a joke like M.C. Oluomo.
‘Igbos were asked to support Sanwo-Olu after much consultations with Umahi, Ikpeazu, and Wike, who said it’s in Igbos’ interest to support Sanwo-Olu. So in the light of the foregoing, Sanwo-Olu should start the national healing process by facilitating Eze-Igbo’s release who has been abandoned in detention and has confirmed that he just cracked a joke.
‘IPOB does not exist in the Southwest; they are only in the Southeast. There is no way IPOB will go to the Southwest to cause havoc. If the police can forgive M.C. Oluomo because what he said was a joke, then they should release Eze-Igbo because it’s a joke, he should not remain in detention till May,’ Isiguzoro said.