Media mogul and publisher of Ovation International, Dele Momodu, has joined growing voices calling on the Federal Government to release the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu.
Okay News reports that Momodu, a former presidential aspirant under the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), made the appeal in a post shared on his official X (formerly Twitter) handle on Tuesday.
He urged the government to address the deep-rooted causes of separatist agitation in the South-East, rather than focusing solely on punitive measures.
Momodu accompanied his post with a video clip of one of Kanu’s broadcasts recorded shortly before his repatriation from Kenya by Nigerian security agents.
According to him, the push for Biafra is a reflection of decades of marginalisation and deprivation suffered by the Igbo people.
“Shortly before his abduction from Kenya by the Nigerian government, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu made this thought-provoking broadcast in which he philosophised about the reasons he and his supporters became radicalised,” Momodu said.
He criticised those who condemned Kanu and his followers without understanding the historical and political context that gave rise to the renewed agitation.
“I have taken time to listen to his critics and discovered most of them only jumped to conclusions without proper analysis of why agitation for Biafra became reignited, attractive, and fanciful after the pogrom that wasted millions of lives and destroyed unimaginable properties in the 1960s and ’70s,” he added.
Momodu quoted Kanu as saying that “the continuing marginalisation of the Igbo, and deprivation accorded some of the most energetic and vibrant brains in Africa, and globally, rekindled the Biafra sentiment.”
The Ovation publisher further warned that attempts to silence or eliminate Kanu would not end the agitation, stressing that the issue demanded a political solution rather than a legal or military one.
“Attempts by enemies of Kanu, including his own kinsmen, to exterminate him will never solve the problem. The Igbo struggle goes beyond legalese. It requires serious political reconfiguration, and urgently too,” Momodu stated.
While clarifying that he does not support violence, Momodu urged the government to constructively engage the South-East to promote peace and unity.
“I will never support violence. But any sensible government will keep the geniuses of the South-East very busy with productive engagements, instead of this rabid hatred,” he concluded.
His comments come amid renewed calls from political leaders, civil rights organisations, and Igbo socio-cultural groups for Kanu’s release and for a political dialogue to resolve the long-standing separatist crisis in the South-East.
