Nnamdi Kanu’s legal team urges Tinubu to hold talks with the IPOB leader

The legal team of Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), has asked President Bola Tinubu to hold a private meeting with the IPOB leader to find solution to the frequent agitations in the South-east.

In a statement signed by its Head, Nnaemeka Ejiofor, the legal team urged Mr Tinubu to show statesmanship in the handling of Mr Kanu’s continued detention.

The legal team sent the statement, dated 21 August 2024, to PREMIUM TIMES.

The lawyers argued that Messrs Tinubu and Kanu share similar characteristics as “democrats and freedom fighters”, citing roles played by the president during the annulment of 12 June 1993 presidential election by the Nigerian military regime.

“It is imperative that President Tinubu holds a private meeting with Kanu so that he can hear from the man his theories of how Nigeria can forge ahead,” Mr Ejiofor said.

‘Don’t silence IPOB, find the root cause of agitation’

IPOB is a group agitating for the independent state of Biafra which it wants carved out from the South-east and some parts of South-south Nigeria.

The group emerged after Ralph Uwazulike’s Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra, a similar pro-Biafra group, became inactive.

Mr Kanu’s lawyers said Mr Tinubu should investigate the root cause of the agitations and find a solution.

“Silencing IPOB now is sweeping the dirt under the carpet. Find the root cause, Mr President, and solve it in collaboration with Mazi Nnamdi Kanu,” they stated.

Why Tinubu should release Nnamdi Kanu

The legal team also appealed to Mr Tinubu to release the IPOB leader.

They argued that Mr Kanu is perceived from the prism of being a separatist, but inwardly he is a “detribalised Nigerian who had helped to pay the fines of prisoners of various tribes, especially northerners” while he was detained at Kuje Correctional Centre, Abuja.

“This amiable humanity in him is what many people are not unaccustomed to because of the persona built up around him, some of which are wide off the mark,” they stated.

According to them, the IPOB leader has a “stunning intellectual mind” and is zealous about ensuring that Nigeria functions well.

“Anybody who has had a one-on-one encounter with him will see that he has a great passion for the turnaround of Nigeria’s fortune as well as the fight against corruption and other forms of social ills in the country so that Nigerians can have a better future.”

Failed pleas for Nnamdi Kanu’s release

The legal team recalled how several Igbo leaders, such as the late President-General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, and a First Republic minister, Mbazuluike Amaechi, unsuccessfully appealed to the then President Muhammadu Buhari to release Mr Kanu.

They contended that the call for Mr Kanu’s release gained traction after Mr Tinubu’s government freed other agitators like Omoyele Sowore, Sunday Igboho and Miyetti Allah’s Kautal Hore, Bello Bodejo, who were charged with similar offences.

“The conciliatory attitude of the government to Boko Haram terrorists who killed, kidnapped and raped Nigerians during Kanu’s incarceration, coupled with the fact that several courts had ordered his release, all make a compelling case for a reconsideration of Kanu’s case,” the legal team argued.

However, while it is true that the Court of Appeal, Abuja, discharged and acquitted Mr Kanu of all charges on 13 October 2022, the Supreme Court overturned the ruling in December 2023 and ordered the continuation of his trial.

Solving insecurity in South-east

The legal team, like many Igbo leaders, argued that Mr Kanu’s release will help to end insecurity in the South-east.

“With peace in the South-east, the military deployed there can then be redeployed to face down the bandits and terrorists wreaking havoc in the North-east, North-west and parts of North-central, leading to the food insecurity that is now causing protests in Nigeria,” they said.

Background

Mr Kanu was first arrested in 2015 under the administration of President Buhari.

The Court of Appeal, Abuja, held on 13 October 2022 that the IPOB leader was extraordinarily renditioned to Nigeria.

The court said the action was a flagrant violation of the country’s extradition treaty and a breach of his fundamental human rights.

The court, therefore, struck out the terrorism charges filed against Mr Kanu by the Nigerian government and ordered his release from the facility of the State Security Service.

But the government refused to release the IPOB leader, insisting that he (Kanu) could be unavailable in subsequent court proceedings if released and that his release would cause insecurity in the South-east, where he comes from.

The government, through the office of the Attorney-General of the Federation, later appealed the court ruling and subsequently obtained an order staying the execution of the court judgement at the Supreme Court.

Delivering judgement on the appeal on 15 December 2023, the Supreme Court reversed the acquittal granted to Mr Kanu by the Court of Appeal and consequently ordered the continuation of his trial at the Federal High Court Abuja.

The court has repeatedly dismissed Mr Kanu’s applications for bail.