By Eric Elezuo
The world woke on June 29, 2021 to the shocking news of the re-arrest of the leader of the proscribed Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB), Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, after over three years of verbal crossfire with the Federal Government of Nigeria. Kanu, who had been in London since he escaped the military invasion of his house in Afaraukwu, Umuahia, was arrested in Kenya by the Nigerian security operatives, said to be working in tandem with the International Police (INTERPOL). The details of his arrest, and who was involved have remained sketchy till this day.
Prior to Kanu’s escape from Nigeria in September, 2017, he had remained a frequent visitor to the courts, from his base in prison, which later granted him bail. He was serving his bail period when the invasion, which stakeholders described as deadly, forced him to abscond. There were varying stories of his whereabouts until he was spotted in Israel praying. That put paid the insinuations about his death and possible location anywhere around the globe. It would be recalled that the likes of former Abia State governor, Chief Orji Uzo Kalu, had claimed he was in Malaysia in addition to so many theories propounded by diverse groups.
Observers have noted that since the saga of Nnamdi Kanu erupted with his ambitious desire of creating a new Biafra state from the South East and South south out of the existing Federal Republic of Nigeria, his image has grown large as a result of the government’s inability to toe the path of dialogue. He had continually received the accolades of a deity as the Nigerian government continued to hound him.
This accolades have emboldened the Afaraukwu prince, who remained in the business of making statements after statements, authenticating the existence of Biafra, and more recently, the Eastern Security Network, a military wing of the IPOB.
Kanu’s radical demand for the state of Biafra kicked off two years after the death of Biafra’s main agitator, Chief Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, in 2014, with the founding of the Radio Biafra, where he served as its director. The radio station, which was subsequently labelled illegal by the Nigeria Broadcasting Commission (NBC), was known to frequently air pro-secessionist programmes and sentiments, and later banned. He became a fugitive thereafter, and was arrested a year later on October, 14, 2015 at a hotel in Lagos by operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS) and placed in detention on grounds of terrorism and treasonable felony. His influence grew, and created in him a man-god when the DSS blatantly refused to release him in spite of several court orders in December 2015 for his release.
The General Muhammadu Buhari-led administration neither heeded court instructions to release him nor engaged him in dialogue for one and half years where he remained incarcerated without trial.
However, his image continued to grow larger with large number of South east youths joining his cause, and made IPOB a movement and Nnamdi Kanu a revered supreme leader. On April 28, 2017 however, a Federal Court released Kanu on bail, with stiff bail conditions including a sum of N100 million bond through a Senator, a Jewish leader, and a highly respected Nigerian. The conditions were met as the senator representing Abia Central, Enyinnaya Abaribe, supported the cause, and Kanu was released on bail.
But the damage obviously must have been done as Kanu had already become very popular, commanding followers, who were willing to go with him the whole yards. He quickly re-ignited his old sentimental secessionist agenda and making statements that re-echoed across the length and breadth of the Nigerian nation including the fact that President Buhari died in Saudi Arabia, and had been cloned with a man he described as Jibrin from Sudan. Not a few believed him. It will be recalled that Buhari had been away on medical pilgrimage for an accumulated 150 days thereby creating avenue for the speedy spread of Kanu’s allegation.
His popularity and growing spread of the Biafra awareness led the Nigerian Army to launch the Operation Python Dance in September 2017. The Military raided Kanu’s home and declared IPOB a terrorist organisation. But Kanu escaped, and re-appeared a year later in Israel to announce that he was forced to escape Nigeria and that the Nigerian Army killed 28 IPOB members in its attempt to arrest him.
His trial continued in his absence a month after his disappearance, and he was never in court.
“I don’t know where my client is. Since that time (the forced Army entrance into his home) I have not heard from him. I cannot tell whether he is alive or dead.” His lawyer, Ifeanyi Ejiofor told the court:
That remained the situation until the Federal Government on June 29, announced his re-arrest. It was believed that he was arrested two days before it was made public, and then an 11-count charge including treason, treasonable felony, terrorism and illegal possession of firearms were slammed on him.
Nigeria’s Minister of Information and Culture, Mr. Lai Muhammed has said while promising that Kanu would be given a fair trial that he would be “…facing an 11-count charge of treason, treasonable felony, terrorism and illegal possession of firearms, among others, jumped bail in 2017 and left the country. On Tuesday, Kanu was re-arraigned in court and ordered to be remanded in the custody of the DSS, while the case was adjourned till July 26-27, 2021.
“The Federal Government wishes to commend the Nigerian security and intelligence agencies, who collaborated to re-arrest the proscribed IPOB leader in one of the most classic operations of its type in the world.”
After few attempts by the DSS to bring him to court failed, Nnamdi Kanu, finally appeared in court on Thursday, October 22, 2021, approximately six years since his ordeal started, amid heavy security, and pleaded not guilty to the Federal government 7-count amended charges bordering on alleged terrorism and treasonable felony with the Department of State Security (DSS) as the lead prosecutor. It will be noted that even journalists were barred from accessing the courtroom.
He was re-arraigned at an Abuja division of the Federal High court before Justice Binta Nyako, who adjourned the case to November 10, 2021 after refusing his application to be transferred to Kuje Prison.
Attached to the amended charges filed by DSS, is a seven paragraph affidavit of completion deposed to by Loveme Odubo, a prosecutor in the Federal Ministry of Justice. Kanu’s Counsel, Ifeanyi Ejiofor said they are challenging the fresh 7 count charges.
Kanu’s deification was very visible in the court premises as a large of supporters had stormed the environment chanting solidarity songs.
In an attempt to prove that he did not jump as massively propagated by the Nigerian government, Kanu said if he had not escaped, he might have been killed like other members of the group. The judge therefore encouraged him not to feel discomfited while standing his trial.
A day after the court proceedings, the Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami held a press conference, where he alleged that Kanu was responsible for almost all the carnages that have happened in the country in recent times, especially the massive destructions of October 2020, occasioned by the #EndSARS protests across the nation, with massive emphasis to the Southeast, Southsouth and Southwest regions.
The Federal Government through a committee set up by the President Buhari to investigate Kanu, blamed the IPOB leader for the murder of Dr Chike Akunyili, the husband of a former Director-General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, the late Prof Dora Akunyili in Anambra and the murder of a former presidential aide, Ahmad Gulak, and over 184 others in the South-East as well as burning down the palace of the Oba of Lagos.
The 24-member committee comprised members from the Federal Ministry of Justice, the Federal Ministry of Information, the Nigeria Police Force, the Department of State Services, the National Intelligence Agency and the Defence Intelligence Agency.
The committee, headed by Malami, said consequent upon the instigating directives of Kanu, members of IPOB and the Eastern Security Network carried out massive attacks on democratic institutions, especially facilities of the Independent National Electoral Commission to hamper democratic process in Nigeria.
Across many reports, it has been established that “Kanu, who had been on the run before his recent arrest, has been sort of an enigma since he jumped bail, creating a personality cult so strong that his tweets elicited mass sit-outs in the southeast.”
It must be noted that every Monday, in addition to everyday Kanu appears in court has been designated as compulsory public holidays in the Southeast, and no pronouncement of five sitting governors of the region has made any significant effect to the contrary. That is how respected the IPOB has come to be.
The young man by all intent and purposes has become a deity among his large professed and silent followers, and it is clear that the federal government has helped in no small measure to his deification.
The world awaits November 10 for continuation of his trial.
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