Releasing Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), will be tantamount to rewarding criminality and impunity, Niger Delta militant leader, Asari Dokubo, said on Friday.
Dokubo told journalists after meeting President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Dokubo at the Presidential Villa, Abuja that instead of a release, Kalu should be made to face the law.
According to Dokubo, who was a former supporter of Biafran independence: “His release would fuel impunity. During EndSars, Nnamdi Kanu was walking free. What did he do? He poured petrol on the flames of EndSars. Now, he has been caught. What of the people who have died? This is a criminal. He should face the law.
“Releasing Nnamdi Kanu is rewarding criminality and rewarding gruesome murder of innocent people. He should face the law for the actions and instigations he has carried out,” he said.
Kanu, who is standing trial for terrorism, has been in custody of the Department of State Services (DSS) since his re-arrest in 2021.
A Federal High Court in Abuja had granted him bail in 2017 but he flouted the bail conditions and subsequently fled the country.
President Muhammadu Buhari had resisted the pressure to release Kanu, but with the entry of a new government, fresh calls are being made for the IPOB leader’s release.
Governor Peter Mbah of Enugu State had discussed the issue of Kanu when he met with President Bola Tinubu.
For some time, there has been no love lost between the Niger Delta warlord and the Biafran agitator.
In June 2021, Dokubo, who once worked together with Kanu on Biafran independence, made a broadcast, vowing to ‘’bring down the evil empire’’ of Kanu.
He added: “Nnamdi Kanu, I’m not in your category but for this. I will surely bring you down. I will destroy this evil empire that is working as a hindrance to the restoration of Biafra. Biafra is your business now. You have no other avenue for gainful income. It is a pity how Igbo people have fallen for this evil. But your time is up. I am out for you. And I will get you.”
Sources said that in September 2017 when troops of the Nigerian military invaded Nnamdi Kanu’s family home in Abia State which led to the deaths of 28 IPOB members, Niger Delta militants linked to Dokubo aided his escape from Nigeria.
Kanu had disappeared from public view after the raid by the Nigerian military while still on bail at the Federal High Court, Abuja where he was facing trial for treason, almost caused the incarceration of his sureties – Senators Enyinnaya Abaribe, Immanuel El-Shalom and Tochukwu Uchendu.
But Kanu, after the escape, reappeared in Israel in 2018, and afterwards moved to the UK where he is a citizen. It was from UK that he travelled to Kenya in June 2021 when he was intercepted and brought back to Nigeria. Abubakar Malami, then Attorney-general of the Federation and Minister of Justice, had on Tuesday, June 29, 2021 announced via a statement that the IPOB leader was “intercepted” in Kenya.”
Malami’s statement partly read: “Self-acclaimed leader of the proscribed secessionist Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Kanu, has been intercepted through the collaborative efforts of Nigerian intelligence and Security Services. He has been brought back to Nigeria, in order to continue facing trial after disappearing, while on bail regarding 12-count charge against him. Recent steps taken by the Federal Government saw to the interception of the fugitive Kanu on Sunday the 27th day of June 2021.”