The leadership of the Arewa Youths Consultative Forum, AYCF, has kicked against the consideration President Muhammadu Buhari promised to give the request by Igbo elders.
The Highly Respected Igbo Greats, led by 93 year-old Mbazuike Amaechi, a first republic parliamentarian, has pleaded with Buhari to release Nnamdi Kanu, IPOB’s leader standing terrorism trial.
And Buhari has promised to consider the request, though he believes it is a heavy demand on his presidency.
But the National President of AYCF, Yerima Shettima, warned that more Kanu’s would emerge to further complicate the insecurity situation in the country, if the IPOB leader is released.
“There is the possibility of undermining the consequences of what this man (Nnamdi Kanu) did to the country and by implication, if he is allowed to go unpunished, it would be sending the wrong message,” he said in an interview with the Daily Post..
“Nobody in the history of this country has done more damage to this country since the civil war than this young man.
“If at the end of the day, they allow him to go unpunished after what he has done, the implication is that nobody will ever commit any offence of this nature and be punished because everybody will always refer to him.
“And this means that the constitution is automatically suspended in the country. This means that some people can just commit any crime at the expense of over 200 million Nigerians and get away with it. Somebody can kill, pronounce killing and still get away with it; then what is the essence of condemning people to death for killing, murder when compared to what this man (Kanu) did?
The AYCF National President noted that Kanu is not remorseful of his actions, hence he may boast of being begged.
“The consequence is that, if he is allowed to go unpunished, we would end up having millions of Kanu rising, even, if he decides not to go ahead with further actions.
“If he is allowed to go, he (Kanu) will come out boasting that he did not beg to be released. He is not remorseful and there is nothing to show he regrets his actions, and anybody can do such and get away with it; we are not in Banana Republic for God’s sake.
“If we allow him to go unpunished, then we are saying that the country should produce millions of him. With him alone, look at the damage he has done to his region, but for us in the North, we would ensure he has no sympathizer.”