Former vice president and presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in next month’s election, Atiku Abubakar, will grant detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, unconditional release if he emerges president on May 29, one of his campaign directors has revealed.
Kanu has been in detention facility of the Department of State Services (DSS) since June 2021 when he was intercepted and renditioned to Nigeria from Kenya by the federal government. He is being charged for terrorism.
The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja, on Thursday, October 13, 2022 quashed the terrorism charge the federal government had preferred against the detained IPOB leader. It acquitted him of the seven-count charge pending against him before the Federal High Court in Abuja.
In a judgement, the appellate court led by Justice Jummai Hanatu, stated that the “federal government flagrantly violated the law, when it forcefully rendered Kanu from Kenya to the country for the continuation of his trial; and that such extra-ordinary rendition, without adherence to due process of the law, was a gross violation of all international conventions, protocols and guidelines that Nigeria is signatory to, as well as a breach of the appellant’s fundamental human rights. The federal government challenged the judgment at the Supreme Court.
The United Nations Human Rights Council Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, had in a report it released July last year, intervened with a call on the Nigerian government to “immediately release Kanu unconditionally” and pay him adequate compensations for the arbitrary violation of his fundamental human rights.
Revealing Atiku’s plan, director-general of the Presidential Campaign Council (PCC) of Atiku/Okowa in Anambra State, Prof. Obiora Okonkwo, said the PDP candidate will rely on the Appeal Court judgement to release the Biafra agitator.
According to Okonkwo, the appellate court was very explicit that Kanu should be a free man and no court can try him again for the alleged offence.
The PDP chieftain also disclosed that one of Atiku’s key programmes would be to ‘instil permanent peace’ in parts of the country especially the South East region.
To achieve this, he said Atiku would release all South East agitators in detention and ensure that the tension in the region is doused.
He, therefore, urged the people of the zone to throw their weight behind the PDP candidate to win the February 25 poll, knowing that he has in mind the best interest of South East.
Okonkwo said, “I am saying this with every sense of responsibility that Atiku will grant Nnamdi Kanu unconditional release. That is in Atiku’s agenda for permanent peace in the south east. In addition, he will also apply political solution to release all those genuine IPOB agitators in detention without trial.
“Atiku’s government have serious talks with the group and others, with the view to restoring their faith in the country, and make them part of the effort for better Nigeria. However, the criminal elements will be dealt with decisively.
“What we are now therefore saying is for this to happen, peace must reign for election in the Southeast, and the need for the South Easterners to fall behind PDP.”
With this plan, Atiku is the only candidate that has a plan to address the situation in South East, to the benefit of the region and country generally.
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