The family of Nnamdi Kanu has called out President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on breaking his promise to release the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) if he emerged as Nigeria’s President in 2023.
Prince Emmanuel Kanu, the junior brother of the Biafra self-determination leader, revealed what appeared to have been a secret pact between Tinubu and the Kanu family during the 2023 electioneering.
He said that Tinubu’s promise to free Kanu was made after he extracted a commitment from IPOB not to disrupt the 2023 general election or call for a boycott of the poll given its known capacity to do so.
In a press release Thursday night, Prince Emmanuel noted that since IPOB had kept its own part of the agreement by allowing the 2023 general election to run smoothly, it was expected that President Tinubu have by now fulfilled his promise and set Kanu free.
Narrating the incidents that led to the mutual agreement between Tinubu and Kanu’s family, Emmanuel said: “Before the last election, I received a message from an ex-governor that Seyi the son of President Tinubu wanted to see me.
“I agreed to meet with him on the condition that the overriding priority and hence the fulcrum of our discussion will be the release of my brother.
“The meeting was held in Abuja in the presence of another individual whom I asked along to witness the deliberations and if need be provide independent verification should the need arise”.
Prince Emmanuel said that before discussions had commenced “Seyi confirmed to me that his father sanctioned the meeting and that I should consider any agreement we reach as binding on the then candidate Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu”.
He said that both parties agreed “in good faith that I shall relay the outcome (of the meeting ) to my brother to reinforce the long held tradition of IPOB not interfering with the conduct of elections, either through boycott or any other form of civil disobedience”.
“This understanding was duly communicated to my brother and he reaffirmed his commitment not to stop the elections or order any boycott.
Apparently to further reinforce his readiness to honour his promise to the Kanu family, Prince Emmanuel recalled that Tinubu had during his presdential campaign at Owerri, Imo State, “reiterated his commitment to facilitate the release of my brother if elected”.
“We took his public statement as a tacit reaffirmation of the understanding I reached with his son Seyi,” he said.
Emmanuel, who is the spokesman of the Kanu family, bacause “at that end IPOB did not call for election boycott despite having the capacity to do so”.
He further stated that the Biafra separatist group “also made sure that discordant voices urging election boycott were overcome” and the bodies of reason prevailed.
According to him, IPOB did not sanction abstaining from voting “because election boycotts would not reflect well on the reputation of a global movement that prides itself on adherence to democratic tenets”.
However, Prince Emmanuel regretted that after IPOB had fulfilled its own part of the agreement, President Tinubu was still foot dragging in making good the promise he had made in the run up to the 2023 poll.
“It therefore defies logic that nearly two years after President Tinubu assumed the mantle of leadership in Nigeria, my brother is still in detention despite not having any charge against him,” he lamented.
The Kanu family spokesman noted that “it’s been over three months now that Justice Binta Nyako recused herself from the case yet no new judge has been assigned the case”.
“This is on top of the fact that Appeal Court had earlier discharged him of the sham charges and ordered his release which the previous regime of Buhari declined to obey”.
He also pointed out that the “Supreme Court determination that (Kanu’s) bail ought not to have been revoked has been ignored by the courts and the government”
According to him, “the latest insult is that Abuja courts of all persuasion are no longer willing to determine the case of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu on merit but are rather relying on ludicrous and inapplicable technicalities to stall the timely determination of his cases”.
“The truth is that Nigerian courts cannot, will not and does not have both the substantive and procedural jurisdiction to try him. His detention is without the backing of any known law in Nigeria or elsewhere in the world.
“It’s a shame that those who claim to be men of honour cannot honour their word,” he said
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