In order to demand the release of Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, or IPOB, who is currently jailed, senators from the South East area of Nigeria have called a meeting with Prince Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice.
The 15 federal lawmakers were led to the parley by the Senator Representing Abia South, Enyinnaya Abaribe.
Sen. Abaribe, speaking on behalf of his colleagues, expressed optimism that the AGF will convince the Federal Government to give in to the demand for Kanu’s release.
He insisted that the South East region’s growing level of unrest and insecurity was caused by the IPOB leader’s ongoing imprisonment.
He asserts that if Kanu is not freed, social and economic development in the area will stagnate. Abaribe revealed that he had previously had a meeting with Kanu at the Department of State Services (DSS) headquarters. He said that the beleaguered IPOB leader consented to follow any requirements the FG set forth in order to secure his release.
Shortly after all of the governors in the South East decided to contact President Bola Tinubu and request Kanu’s liberation, the lawmakers and the AGF met.
Prior to this, over fifty House of Representatives members from across the nation pleaded with President Tinubu to release the arrested IPOB leader.
The representatives, who identified themselves as “Concerned Federal Lawmakers for Peace and Security in the South East”, prayed President Tinubu to direct the AGF to invoke Section 174 of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, to terminate the terrorism-related charge that is pending against Kanu before the Abuja Division of the Federal High Court.
Recall that on June 19, 2021, Kanu was detained in Kenya, and on June 27, 2021, security personnel astonishingly returned him to the nation. The trial court remanded him in the DSS’s custody on June 29, 2021, in response to the developments, and he has been there ever since. Based on the theory that the charges lacked substance, the court dismissed eight of the fifteen counts that the FG had filed against him on April 8, 2022.
