Apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, on Wednesday sounded a note of warning that the continuous incarceration of the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, was the “incarceration of Ndigbo.”

It insisted that it was no longer comfortable that the trial had taken about ten years since 2015, even with the bail earlier granted to him by a competent court in Nigeria.

President General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Senator John Azuta-Mbata, stated during the 2025 Ohanaeze Ndigbo worldwide retreat in Enugu on Wednesday that Kanu’s matter, which has taken a toll on Igboland, could have ended if those behind the trial wanted it to end.

He stated that the postponement of the retreat earlier scheduled for May 21 and 22 was due to Kanu’s court case that was to be heard on that day, stressing that the shift in the date was a bold and loud statement about how Ndigbo feel on the matter.

“Ohanaeze Ndigbo was making a point by postponing the retreat to redirect the attention of all Igbo to what is going on in the court on that day.

“We have had a trial going on for 10 years; what kind of trial is that? What kind of justice is that? Let everyone bear it in mind that as Kanu is being incarcerated, even with a bail granted by a competent court, it is the entire Igbo that is being incarcerated. There are many prerogatives that are available to the government. The continuous delay in this trial is not acceptable to Ndigbo.

“As we proceed to the next election, let us put the interest of our people first,” he stated.
He said that the retreat, with the theme, “Rebuilding our foundation,” was deliberate and a way to call attention to the dying values and characters of Ndigbo.

Anglican Bishop of Enugu Diocese, Rt Rev Samuel Ike, had earlier charged Ohanaeze Ndigbo leadership to restructure the funding mechanisms so as not to be strangulated by the government in power as a way of rebuilding Igbo land.

“You must restructure our core values as in the days of old. We must by all means seek to go back to our core values, uphold justice, and mete out punishment where necessary. We must pursue justice and ensure that we eliminate influence from moneybaggers. We must return to integrity, dignity. We have money baggers who have no address.

“There is a need to restructure our youths to refrain from adulatory and fetish business or the other. We must, by God’s grace, root out the thinking that money is the ultimate. Human feeling is gone because of adulatory. We must recover all.

“Let’s rebuild our foundation to what is right. We must poise to think out a day of Thanksgiving for Igbo with the episode of January 15, 1966.

We must return to education because education makes a nation and will make Ndigbo. Let’s get our young men and women back to school. With the power of unity, we are rebuilding communal thinking and the power of one voice. We must return to our power of unity,” Bishop Ike said.