Nigerian President, Muhammadu Buhari, has stated that the leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, should defend himself in court for peddling false information about his regime while he was overseas.
The president stated this in an interview aired on Channels Television on Wednesday night.
Some respected Igbo elders led by Minister of Aviation in the First Republic, Chief Mbazulike Amaechi, had visited the President in Aso Rock and requested the unconditional release of the detained secessionist leader.
During the visit on November 19, 2021, Buhari had told them he would not want to interfere in the running of the judiciary but said he would consider their demand though “a heavy one.”
During the television interview, Buhari said: “There is one institution that I wouldn’t interfere with, that is the judiciary, Kanu’s case is with the judiciary but what I wonder is when Kanu was safely in Europe, abusing this administration and mentioning too many things, I thought he wants to come and defend himself on the accusations.
“So, we are giving him an opportunity to defend himself in our system, not to be abusing us from Europe as if he was not a Nigerian. Let him come here with us and then criticise us here. Nigerians know that I don’t interfere with the judiciary, let him be listened to. But those who are saying that he should be released, no, we cannot release him.”
Asked about the possibility for political solution, Buhari said: “There is a possibility of political solution. If people behave themselves, all well and good but you can’t go to a foreign country and keep on sending incorrect economic and security problems against our country and thinking that you would not account for what you have been doing. Let him (Kanu) account for what he has been doing.”