Segun Akanni, Toronto, Canada A coalition of pan-Igbo groups, the Eastern Consultative Assembly, on Tuesday, elected the detained Biafra activist, Nnamdi Kanu, as its new ‘leader’.
Kanu, who also heads a pro-Biafra group, the Indigenous People of Biafra, is currently in detention at Kuje Prison, Abuja.
He is being prosecuted by the Federal Government over alleged offences that border on treasonable felony.
Kanu was elected leader of the ECA in absentia at a special session which held in Enugu.
Others elected at the event include Rev. Fr. John Odey, publicity secretary; Evang. Elliot Ugochukwu-Ukon, secretary; and Dede Uzor, assistant publicity secretary.
Foremost Igbo women leader, Mrs Maria Okwor, is the deputy leader of the group.
In a communique issued after the election, ECA insisted on the restructuring of the country.
ECA, in the communique signed by the deputy leader, Okwor, and the publicity Secretary, Odey, insinuated that the national census figures were rigged to give the impression that the northern part of the country had a larger population than the South.
The group noted that the South-East states were actually more populated than the northern states.
ECA said the census figure released by the National Population Commission was one of the reasons it was demanding the restructuring of the country.
It also noted that the Federal Government’s failure to restructure the country was one of the factors that revived the agitation for the actualisation of Biafra.
The communique read in part, “The fraudulent and oppressive census figures is one of the reasons the East can no longer accept Nigeria as presently structured.
“The deliberate asphyxiation of our people with a very wicked state and local government creation based on land mass is another reason.
“The refusal to peacefully restructure Nigeria is the reason the demand for secession is growing louder and louder.
“The demand will only grow louder until justice is done.”
The group equally condemned statements credited to elder statesman, Alhaji Tanko Yakassai, who reportedly expressed annoyance over the agitation for Biafra.
