Abia governor speaks on ‘new approach’ to secure Nnamdi Kanu’s release

Governor Alex Otti of Abia State has said his administration was deploying “a different approach” to secure the release of the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu.

Mr Otti disclosed this while fielding questions from reporters at a media parley in Umuahia on Sunday night, according to a report by Channels TV.

The governor said the “different approach” would not be made public until it had yielded the desired results.

He pointed out he has been working underground to secure the IPOB leader’s release despite not revealing his efforts to the media.

“I believe in results rather than media hype. We do not want the media noise. We are working very hard to ensure his (Kanu’s) release,” he said.

The governor said the administration of President Bola Tinubu was not responsible for the incarceration of Mr Kanu.

“My personal position is that the new government does not need to inherit the wrong thing of the previous administration,” Mr Otti said of Mr Kanu’s case with the Nigerian government.

The governor expressed optimism that his new approach would yield the desired result.

Background

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

The IPOB leader was later granted bail in April 2017. He fled the country after an invasion of his home in Afara-Ukwu, near Umuahia, Abia State, by the Nigerian military in September of that year.

He was re-arrested in Kenya and brought back to Nigeria in June 2021, about four years after he fled the country.

The Court of Appeal, Abuja, on 13 October 2022, held that the IPOB leader was extra-ordinarily renditioned to Nigeria and that the action was a flagrant violation of the country’s extradition treaty and also 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 (SSS) in Abuja.

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 attorney-general of the federation, later appealed the court ruling and subsequently obtained an order staying its execution at the Supreme Court.

Several leaders in the South-east, such as Governor Charles Soludo of Anambra State and his Enugu State counterpart, Peter Mbah, have repeatedly appealed to the Nigerian government to release the IPOB leader to end insecurity in the region.

But the government is yet to grant their request.

Mr Kanu, on 3 November 2022, through one of his lawyers, Mike Ozekhome, filed an appeal against the stay of execution order at the Supreme Court

The court is yet to resume hearing on the appeal.

However, the court, earlier this month, said it would, on 15 December, deliver judgment in the Nigerian government’s appeal challenging the Court of Appeal’s earlier judgment freeing Mr Kanu.