In accordance with the Court of Appeal’s decision, the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria yesterday requested Muhammadu ‘Buhari’, Nigeria’s President to promptly free Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).
In a statement, the group’s National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, noted that Kanu’s health was declining in the Department of State Services (DSS) cell and questioned whether the Jibrin of Sudan remark was the cause of his denial of freedom in defiance of an existing court order.
In a documentary that was aired Friday night, Buhari stated that he did not find it funny that many Nigerians bought into the rumors that he had died and been replaced by a lookalike named Jibrin from Sudan.
“Yes! People said I am somebody from Sudan. I didn’t bother with the name. Nigerians have mischievous ways of explaining themselves,” the President stated.
When asked if he found the rumour funny, ‘Buhari’ submitted: “No. It’s not funny, because those who made those statements just want to be cheeky. They want to distract attention from the main issue.”
Onwubiko said Buhari’s confession on the comment by Kanu, which gained traction during the President’s first term when he spent months attending to his health in the United Kingdom, could be one of the major reasons the Nigerian leader has decided to keep Kanu in DSS custody 19 months after he was arrested and brought into the country from Kenya.
The HURIWA director recounted that in May, during a meeting with the Ebonyi State Stakeholders’ Forum at Government House in Abakaliki, Buhari had insisted that only the court would decide Kanu’s fate and said that a political solution to his problems was impossible.
He questioned why the instigator continues to act in complete defiance of a court order that is still in effect.
With Buhari’s most recent admission regarding Jibrin of Sudan, Onwubiko stated, “One starts to wonder what fuels his hatred for Nnamdi Kanu to the point where he rejects an appellate court ruling freeing Kanu and has stayed intransigent even when Kanu’s health has critically deteriorated.
Aloy Ejimakor, a member of Kanu’s legal team, claimed on Saturday that the IPOB leader required heart surgery for a valve replacement. It is only proper for the Federal Government to release the detained agitator so he can get emergency medical attention.”
