‘Kanu must defend himself for abusing Nigerian govt abroad,’ Buhari rules out freedom for IPOB leader

President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday asked the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, to defend himself on the alleged treasonable felony and other charges hanging on his neck in court.

Kanu, who was brought back to the country by security agents on June 27 last year, will return to court to the Federal High Court, Abuja, for resumption of his trial on the charges this month.

A group of leaders from the South-East led by the First Republic Minister of Aviation, Chief Mbazulike Amaechi, had on November 19, 2021 urged the President to grant the activist an unconditional release.

President later told the Igbo leaders who visited him at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, he would look into their demand, though “heavy.”

He said: “You have made an extremely difficult demand on me as leader of this country. The implication of your request is very serious.

“In the last six years, since I became President, nobody would say I have confronted or interfered in the work of the judiciary.

“God has spared you, and given you a clear head at this age, with very sharp memory. A lot of people half your age are confused already. But the demand you made is heavy. I will consider it.”

READ ALSO:Northern Elders urge Buhari to ignore Igbo elders’ request to release Nnamdi Kanu

However, in an interview on Channels Television on Wednesday night, the President said the IPOB leader must defend himself in court for abusing the government when he was abroad.

Buhari said: “There is one institution that I wouldn’t interfere with, that is 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.”

“However, there is a possibility of a 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 account for what he has been doing.”

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