Omoyele Sowore, the presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (ACC) in the 2023 election, has fingered some Igbo elite in the continued detention of the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Mazi Nnamdi Kanu......Read The Full Article>>.....Read The Full Article>>
Sowore, the Sahara Reporters publisher, made this known in a recent interview with Rudolf Okonkwo on 90Minutes Africa.
The activist-cum-politician said he had expected that President Bola Tinubu‘s first act in office would be to release Kanu from detention, concluding that the incarceration of the IPOB leader reflects a deep-seated problem with the Igbo by the Nigerian state.
He further argued that Kanu is a casualty of the post-civil war marginalisation of the people of the South-East extraction.
“Nigeria has an Igbo problem. It’s like when a father is dying, they will tell their children, I have a problem with Igbo people; please continue from there,” he said.
Sowore disappointed Tinubu hasn’t freed Kanu
The publisher stressed that he’s disappointed that the President Bola Tinubu-led administration hasn’t deemed it fit to grant Kanu freedom, alleging a conspiracy behind his detention.
“I expected that the first act of Tinubu in office would have been to release Nnamdi Kanu. But the fact that it got worse shows that there is a kind of conspiracy going on.
“I also know that there are some Igbo elite who are complicit in his detention because there was a time when there were discussions about his release, and they said it should hold on until after the election.
“And now, after the election, the devil seems to have intervened more strongly,” he added.
The IPOB leader has been kept in the Department of State Services (DSS) custody since his arrest in Kenya and subsequent extradition to Nigeria in 2021.
He’s currently standing trial on a seven-count charge bordering on treasonable felony.
Recall that Kanu flouted his bail conditions in 2017, which was granted by the federal high court in Abuja over charges filed against him by the federal government.
This prompted the court to revoke the bail and issue a bench warrant for his arrest. However, he fled his home in Abia State after men of the Nigerian Army stormed his family compound to effect an arrest warrant.
In April 2022, Binta Nyako, the presiding judge, struck out eight of the 15 charges preferred against him. In a judgement delivered on October 13, 2022, the remaining seven counts were also quashed by the Appeal Court.
Though the appellate court ordered Kanu’s release, the federal government opposed the decision and filed for a stay of execution on October 28, 2022.
Subsequently, the government initiated an appeal at the Supreme Court. In March this year, the IPOB leader was denied bail and the same thing happened again in May..…READ FULL CONTENT FROM THE SOURCE
