Where is Nnamdi Kanu?

Controversy has continued to trail the whereabouts of the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) Nnamdi Kanu.

So far, virtually every authority concerned has continued to deny knowledge of his whereabouts, while raising queries that he is with the other.

The Nigeria and U.K. governments have both continued to pass the buck as to who has him, and have called on the other to release him.

The Nigerian Army which incidentally created the uproar that led to his disappearance has likewise accused his lawyer of knowing his whereabouts, while his lawyer has also cried that Kanu was taken away by soldiers of the Nigerian Army, who invaded the Biafra agitator’s residence.

The Lawyer, Ifeanyi Ejiofor, to press home his case has dragged the Chief of Army Staff, Lt Gen Tukur Buratai before the Federal High Court in Abuja, urging the court to order Buratai to produce Kanu.

Kanu, who is expected to return to court on October 17, 2017, for treason charges has been accused of violating virtually every aspect of the bail conditions under which he was released.

His group, IPOB has been declared a terrorist organization by the Federal High Court in Abuja after it was proscribed and the Federal Government approached the court for an order to declare IPOB a terror group.

On Thursday a civil society organisation, Advocates of Social Justice for All (ASJA), embarked on a protest in Abuja claiming Kanu is in the U.K., and that that country’s government is well aware of it.

ASJA therefore called called on the government of the United Kingdom to release him, to face his trial in Nigeria.

Read also: Biafra a ‘tall order’, pursue restructuring instead, Ohanaeze tells Igbos

According to them, there is overwhelming evidence that Kanu is now in the U.K, even as they vowed to daily occupy the British High Commission office in Abuja, until Kanu is produced by the UK authorities.

ASJA executive director, Asogo Torkuma‎, who led the protest said, “The Advocates of Social Justice for All is here today in fulfillment of its earlier demand that the United Kingdom, through its High Commission, produce the leader of the terrorist group, the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPoB), Nnamdi Kanu, whom we have now reliably verified to have escaped to London through the active collaboration of his second country.

“We had clearly stated that we shall occupy this High Commission if the UK fails to produce Kanu. Our stance was informed by the knowledge that the UK was instrumental to the escape of the terrorist leader only for it to turn around to ask Nigerian authorities for clarification on the state and status of Kanu.

“Because Nnamdi Kanu holds dual citizenship of Nigeria and the United Kingdom, we do not refute the High Commission’s right to inquire about its “citizen” so to speak.

“But we do have issues with what the High Commission did in the period preceding when Kanu’s IPoB was declared a terrorist organization and what it did afterwards. It smacks of the worst case of double standard possible”.

Kanu has not been sighted in public, since his home in Umuahia, Abia State was invaded by soldiers who while carrying out a ‘show of strength’ were involved in a clash with members of IPOB.

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