Prince Emma Kanu, the younger brother of the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu, has expressed his disappointment that President Bola Tinubu and his son, Seyi, did not honour their alleged promise to release the secessionist leader.
Emma, in a statement he issued late Thursday, claimed he had an agreement with Seyi Tinubu, on the authority of the President that Kanu would be released if the then All Progressives Congress candidate won the election.
“Before the last election, I received a message from an ex-governor that Seyi, the son of President Tinubu, wanted to see me.
“I agreed to meet with him on the condition that the overriding priority and hence the fulcrum of our discussion would be the release of my brother.
“The meeting was held in Abuja in the presence of another individual, who I asked to witness the deliberations and, should the need arise, provide independent verification.
“Seyi confirmed to me that his father sanctioned the meeting and that I should consider any agreement we reach as binding on the then-candidate, Bola Tinubu,” he said.
He said after the meeting, they agreed that he should relay the outcome to Kanu, so that IPOB would not interfere with the conduct of the election, either through boycott or any other form of civil disobedience.
“This understanding was duly communicated to my brother and he reaffirmed his commitment not to stop the elections or order any boycott,” he said.
Emma added that when Tinubu visited Owerri, Imo State, for his campaign, “he too reiterated his commitment to facilitate the release of my brother if elected.
We took his public statement as a tacit reaffirmation of the understanding I reached with his son, Seyi.”
“In the end, IPOB did not call for an election boycott, despite having the capacity to do so. IPOB also made sure that discordant voices urging election boycott were overcome, because it would not reflect well on the reputation of a global movement that prides itself in adherence to democratic tenets.”
Kanu’s younger brother lamented that nearly two years after the President assumed office, his brother was still in detention.
“It’s been over three months now that Justice Binta Nyako recused herself from the case, yet no new judge has been assigned to the case.
“This is on top of the fact that the Appeal Court had earlier discharged him of the sham charges and ordered his release, which the previous Buhari regime declined to obey.
The Supreme Court determination that his bail ought not to have been revoked has been ignored by the courts and the government.
“The latest insult is that Abuja courts of all persuasion are no longer willing to determine the case of Kanu on merit but are rather relying on ludicrous and inapplicable technicalities to stall the timely determination of his cases,” he added.
Emma said Nigerian courts did not have substantive and procedural jurisdiction to try the IPOB leader.
“His detention is without the backing of any known law in Nigeria or elsewhere in the world. It’s a shame that those who claim to be men of honour cannot honour their word,” he said.
