What was Nnamdi Kanu’s crime?
In 2014, a British Nigerian called Nnamdi Kanu formed IPOB (Indigenous People of Biafra), a group whose sole aim was to restore the state of Biafra. The Republic of Biafra was a country that broke out from Nigeria before the 1967 civil war. They rejoined Nigeria after the civil war.
Nnamdi Kanu had started Radio Biafra in 2009–before forming IPOB. It was a radio station where all talks about the plans of the group were discussed. This new development didn’t augur well with people in certain quarters because he was arrested in October 2015 in Lagos and was detained for close to a year. In November 2015, he was arraigned by the Nigeria DSS in an Abuja Magistrate court for charges of “criminal conspiracy, intimidation and membership of an illegal organisation”. All the court orders for his release were not adhered to and it dragged on for almost 2 years.
In 2017, he was released on bail because of his health but he jumped bail and fled. IPOB was later declared a terrorist group by the defence headquarters and the court, following the approval of the South-East governors. While on the run, he continued to preach the gospel of the actualization of Biafra. He maintained that Biafrans are only interested in reaching their goals through peace but the reality said otherwise.
The IPOB formed ESN (Eastern Security Network) in 2020. It was meant to be the armed segment of IPOB and its main objective was to protect people in Eastern states from bandits and killer herdsmen. Perhaps they intended for it to be like the Amotekun group in the Southwest but that didn’t work out well. The Nigerian Government seeing ESN as a threat, deployed the army to locate and destroy ESN bases. This caused intense fighting in the town of Orlu in Imo State and many people lost their lives.
After years of being away in exile, Nnamdi Kanu was finally arrested in 2021 by Interpol. He was arrested in Kenya and later extradited to Nigeria although even at the time there were some irregularities regarding the extradition process because he had renounced his Nigerian citizenship in 2015.
Fast forward to 2022, the Court of Appeal in Abuja, on October 13, 2022, termed the rendition illegal and dropped all terrorism charges levelled against Kanu by the Federal Government. According to the sitting judge, the abduction was unlawful and as such he should be discharged and acquitted.
The Attorney-general of the Federation Abubakar Malami doesn’t agree with the ruling yet but as it stands Nnamdi Kanu is free.
#STATEAFFAIRS is a segment that gives you a quick rundown of various political and state issues as they happen in the most simple, subtle language. In this edition, we are looking at the Nnamdi Kanu story.
