The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has announced that it would join and fully support the peaceful protest being organised by Omoyele Sowore to demand Nnamdi Kanu’s release, saying the time has come for Nigerians, especially the Igbo people, to rise against selective justice.

It also condemned President Bola Tinubu’s Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Mr. Bayo Onanuga, saying his utterances are dangerous to Nigeria’s fragile unity.

The association said in a statement signed by the Executive Director of the rights body, Emmanuel Onwubiko, that Onanuga’s recent statement that detained IPOB leader, Nnamdi Kanu, “will get what he deserves” was a clear reflection of the double standards that have long defined Nigeria’s justice system, where individuals from certain ethnic backgrounds are allegedly persecuted for dissent while others are rewarded for incitement.

In a statement made available to journalists yesterday, HURIWA said Onanuga’s comments were not just an attack on Kanu but an affront to the entire Igbo-speaking population of Nigeria.

“Nnamdi Kanu’s message, though sometimes delivered in strong language, was rooted in the call for equity and justice for the Igbo race. Anyone who denies that the Igbo people are systematically marginalised in modern-day Nigeria is either dishonest or an outcast among his people,” the association said.

HURIWA noted that Onanuga’s renewed attack on rights activist Omoyele Sowore and former Vice President Atiku Abubakar for supporting Kanu’s release was both hypocritical and arrogant.

 “It is ironic that Onanuga accused Atiku of commenting on a case before the court while he himself is making inflammatory pronouncements on the same issue,” the group said.

“Onanuga is not the Chief Justice of Nigeria. He has no right to sit in Aso Rock and pass judgement on Kanu. What gives him the moral or legal authority to pre-judge a matter in court while pretending to caution others?” HURIWA queried.

The rights organisation condemned the apparent ethnic imbalance in the country’s justice system, where anti-Igbo promoters allegedly walk free and even hold federal appointments while the leader of a movement calling for equality is treated unjustly.

​