PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari has ruled out the possibility of interfering in the judiciary to free Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) who is currently facing trial in a case of treasonable felony.
He asked Kanu to face the law and defend himself.
President Buhari said this on Wednesday in an interview with Channels Television.
Answering a question on the possibility of releasing Kanu, the president said,
“There is one institution I would not dare interfere with — that is the judiciary.
“Kanu’s case is with the judiciary. But what I wonder is when Kanu was in Europe abusing this administration, I never thought he would voluntarily come and defend himself on the accusations.
“So we are giving Kanu 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 and criticise us here.”
“His case is with the judiciary; let him be listened to.”
Buhari, however, did not rule out the possibility of a political solution for Kanu.
“If he behaves himself, all well and good, but you can’t go to a foreign country and keep sending incorrect security and economic problems against your country — and think you will never account for what you has been doing. Let him account for what he has been doing,” he said.
Some leaders of the South-East zone had gone to the president in November 2021 and appealed to him to grant Kanu amnesty so as to reduce tension in the zone..
He gave them glimpses of hope, but there have been pressure from some sections of the North to ensure that Kanu faces the law.
A reporter with the ICIR
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