You Can’t Stop Any Igbo Leader From Travelling, Abaribe Dares IPOB

The Senate Minority Leader, Enyinnaya Abaribe, has said that the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), has no right to tell any Igbo leader not to travel out of the country.

ORIENTAL TIMES reported that former Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu was assaulted in Germany by some people believed to be members of the proscribed pro-Biafra group.

Members of IPOB have therefore warned politicians from the South-East geopolitical zone to stay away from foreign countries to avoid the type of treatment they gave Ekweremadu.

Abaribe who helped secured bail for IPOB leader, Nnamdi Kanu, during an interview said such a threat can only work in a society where autocracy is the form of government being practised.

“One of the hallmarks of constitutional democracy is the fundamental rights of people. These include rights to travel, rights to freedom of movement, and rights to freedom of association.

“Except we want to have an autocracy, so long it’s a democracy, then you have got to be a democrat. What a democrat does is that they respect the rights of others.

“For instance, I am travelling next week; I will be in Houston and also in Atlanta. I will go anywhere I want to go in the world, I don’t care. Senator Ekweremadu, despite the assault he suffered, has also said that people should be free to go to wherever they want. Because of that, I do not really see why anybody should be afraid to exercise their rights.”

The lawmaker who noted that it is only in Nigeria that offence is committed without getting appropriate sanctions said once the rights of another person in the developed countries are trampled on, the enforcement agencies will take it up with the offender.

“When the threat was issued, I said it was only here in Nigeria that the police and other enforcement agencies could be afraid and refuse to take action. On that basis, we shouldn’t be bothered about what would happen outside the country,” he said.