Enyinnaya Abaribe, senator representing Abia south senatorial district, says Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), is willing to fulfil any condition that would lead to his release.
Abaribe said this during a chat with journalists on Wednesday, after senators from the south-east geopolitical region emerged from a meeting with Lateef Fagbemi, attorney-general of the federation.
Kanu has been in the custody of the Department of State Services (DSS) since he was re-arrested in Kenya and extradited to Nigeria in 2021.
Abaribe said Kanu’s prolonged incarceration has emboldened “criminals” in the south-east who now commit “all manner of nefarious activities” in his name.
“I met with Nnamdi Kanu myself on behalf of the rest of the caucus on Monday. And he is very supportive of our plea to the president of the federal republic of Nigeria,” Abaribe said.
“By the way, the 15 of us signed this letter which has been handed to the attorney-general.
“Kanu has also assured me that he is ready to fulfil any conditions that will lead to his early release.
“The AGF received us very warmly and also told us that this is a request for which he has to go and study it, digest it and take to the president because he won’t take the ultimate decision — because it’s a decision of the government of the federal republic of Nigeria.
“This matter cannot be resolved legally.
“If we continue with the legal wrangling, it will continue to cause insecurity because the legitimate demand has been hijacked by criminals, undesirables and all manner of elements who have used it to perpetrate their nefarious deals on the rest of the people in the south-east.”
On Tuesday, governors of the south-east region resolved to meet with President Bola Tinubu over Kanu’s release.
BACKROUND
Kanu is standing trial at the federal high court in Abuja on a seven-count charge bordering on treasonable felony.
In 2017, the court granted Kanu bail on the charges filed against him by the federal government.
However, the court revoked the bail and issued a bench warrant for his arrest after he failed to present himself as required.
Abaribe was one of Kanu’s sureties when the IPOB leader fled Nigeria.
“I went underground because my house was raided by soldiers,” Kanu told the court on June 29, 2021, after his re-arrest.
“I had to escape, otherwise I’d have been killed.”
In April 2022, Binta Nyako, presiding judge, struck out eight of the 15 counts in the charge.
The remaining seven counts were also quashed by the court of appeal on October 13, 2022, with the judge ordering Kanu’s release.
However, on October 28, 2022, the court of appeal granted a stay of execution on its verdict discharging Kanu, after the federal government filed an appeal at the supreme court.
In March, Kanu was denied bail. In May, his bail request was again turned down.
