The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) have issued a stern warning to all candidates running for the seat of the President in the forthcoming presidential elections to desist from using its detained leader Nnamdi Kanu as a bargaining chip ahead of the election.
The warning was contained in a statement by the group’s Media and Publicity Secretary, Emma Powerful, who reacted to the promise made by the People Democratic Party PDP’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar to grant Nnamdi Kanu unconditional release if elected.
The Director-General of the PDP Presidential Campaign Council (PCC), Professor Obiora Okonkwo, said on Tuesday that Atiku has plans to restore peace to the South-eastern region, and releasing Kanu was one of the ways to achieve that. This assertion by Okonkwo was made barely 48 hours after Kanu’s American counsel and international spokesperson, Bruce Fein called on the presidential contenders, Atiku, Tinubu, and Obi to promise to free the self-determined IPOB leader from detention if any of them wins the election to become the country’s next leader.
Reacting to Okonkwo’s statement, IPOB warned that on no account should its leader be used as a bargaining chip, and PDP should rather demand that their leader be released by the federal government.
The group stated that Nnamdi Kanu has been declared innocent by the judiciary and that means he must be released from his continued unlawful detention and torture by the ruling government of the APC, adding that the group does not expect anything contrary to the implementation of the judgement of the Court of Appeal.
The group’s leadership also informed the PDP that in as much as IPOB has no issues with the statement to free Kanu, their focus should be on demanding that the Nigerian government obeys the judgement of its own court, adding that irrespective of the individual or political party that occupies the position of power in Aso Rock, IPOB’s demands will remain consistent.
