Tinubu Plans To Release Nnamdi Kanu After Imo Governorship Election
Tinubu’s Plan To Release IPOB Leader, Nnamdi Kanu Stalled By Southeast Nigerian Politics, Imo Gov Poll
Nnamdi Kanu, the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) would have regained his freedom but for Imo State politics and the forthcoming governorship election in the state, SaharaReporters can exclusively report.
Kanu, the leader of the separatist group was on June 19, 2021, abducted from Nairobi airport in Kenya and then detained and tortured for about 10 days in Kenya.
Under Muhammadu Buhari’s administration, Kanu was subsequently flown by private plane from Kenya to Nigeria later in June 2021.
Since Kanu was brought to Nigeria to face trial for terrorism charges, he has been detained in solitary confinement at the headquarters of the Department of State Services, Nigeria’s secret police, in the capital city, Abuja.
Mr Kanu, a British citizen, has requested consular assistance from the British government, but the appeals failed.
However, sources in the Presidency told SaharaReporters on Friday that President Bola Tinubu would have ordered the release of Kanu but he was advised against doing so at this time by some politicians close to him.
SaharaReporters learnt that Tinubu was advised to hold on till after Imo State governorship election scheduled for November 11, 2023, as Kanu’s release before then could have political implications in the Southeast region.
“The release of Nnamdi Kanu was stalled by the Southeast politics of Imo. They claimed to Tinubu that his release might affect the election in Imo so the President waited,” one of the sources told SaharaReporters.
The Nigerian government under former President Muhammadu Buhari proscribed IPOB over its alleged killings and other atrocities in its agitation for the actualisation of the Biafra Nation.
On January 18, 2018, a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja held that the proscription of IPOB by former President Buhari's government was in order.
Justice Abdul Abdu-Kafarati of the Federal High Court proscribed IPOB based on the ex parte motion filed by the then Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN), on behalf of the Nigerian government, specifically declaring as illegal, all IPOB’s activities, particularly in the Southeast and South-South regions of Nigeria.
But the group approached the Court of Appeal insisting that the trial court erred in law. It pleaded with the court to set aside the order of the lower court and the motion ex parte.
IPOB in its five grounds of appeal contended that Justice Abdu-Kafarati erred in law and occasioned a miscarriage of justice, when he ruled that the mandatory statutory condition requiring Buhari’s approval, under Section 2 (1) (C) of the Terrorism (Prevention) (Amendment) Act, 2013, was satisfied, on the authority of a Memo the AGF issued on September 15, 2017.
