Wike: trial must follow due process

By Mike Odiegwu, Port Harcourt and Uja Emmanuel, Makurdi

Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike on Thursday urged the Federal Government to ensure there is due process in the prosecution of the leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.

To him, the trial must not reinforce the belief by some that the President hated the Southeast.

Wike, who spoke during an interview on Arise Television, said irrespective of the differences Kanu had with Rivers State Government, his trial must follow due process.

According to the governor, for the Federal Government to demonstrate its resolve to tackle insecurity, the same strategies deployed to arrest Kanu must as a matter of urgency be extended to bandits, killer-herdsmen and militias terrorising the country.

He said: “We must not make a hullabaloo about the prosecution of Nnamdi Kanu. I don’t agree with his principle.

Read Also; Nnamdi Kanu’s arrest and matters arising

“I have come out and said you (Kanu) cannot annex my state to be your own. But that does not mean that you’ll not allow the law to take its course.”

The governor insisted that government must arrest every wanted terrorist on its watchlist and bring them to book.

He said: “You cannot afford to discriminate at this point. You cannot say because Nnamdi Kanu is from a particular area, let us prosecute him. The same thing must apply to all other people, the bandits, Myetti Allah.”

Benue State Governor Samuel Ortom urged the Federal Government to track down and arrest killer-herdsmen just as it did Kanu.

Speaking at flag-off cropping season, the governor said the battle against insecurity should not be selective in approach.

He said: “If they can arrest Nnamdi Kanu in a foreign land and bring him to Nigeria, the Federal Government should arrest killer-herdsmen as they have caused pains to Nigerians.

“Miyetti Allah has openly confessed to some killings in the country and threatened the peace of the county yet they are going about freely.

“If the Federal Government does not arrest leaders of Miyetti Allah, then they are not serious.”

The governor said there was nothing wrong with asking for self-determination.

He also called for due process in the trial of the IPOB leader.