The World Igbo Congress (WIC) has declared Wednesday July 21, 2021 a day of protest across cities in the United States of America (US) and beyond.
The WIC, a Houston-based sociopolitical organization that promotes Igbo people’s interests world-wide, declared the action, according to a broadcast by the Chairman of its Board of Directors, Professor Anthony Ejiofor, to protest the continued detention by the Nigerian government, of the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Mazi Nnamdi Kanu and demand his immediate and unconditional release.
Prof. Ejiofor, who said that Igbos across the US and beyond had been sufficiently mobilized for the protest, insisted that Mazi Kanu was illegally abducted from Kenya by security operatives and is being held in Abuja, the country’s capital, stressing that the protest is also to draw the attention of the international community to this illegality and pressure them to support the call for Kanu’s release.
The protest is also meant to make the US, United Kingdom (UK) and other western nations aware of the high level of insecurity in Nigeria and the orgy of killings and kidnappings, especially in Christian dominated areas of the country, from Southern Kaduna and Benue state in the Middle Belt to the South East, South South and South West zones of the country and stop any further assistance to the Nigerian government that would strengthen its support for the rampaging herdsmen and the security officials brutally cracking down on innocent citizens in the middle belt and southern part of Nigeria.
Re-enforcing the directive of Prof. Ejiofor, the Public Relations Officer of WIC, Mazi Basil Onwukwe, urged all Igbos to join the protest wherever they are, stressing that WIC will continue the pursuit of a referendum because self-determination “is the inalienable right of indigenous peoples of the world.”
He said that Mazi Kanu has always advocated a peaceful referendum to determine the wish of the people and for fair and equitable treatment for Igbos, insisting that these are no crime.
