Senators from South-East Nigeria will meet with the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Prince Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, today, Wednesday, July 3, to discuss the possibility of Nnamdi Kanu, the detained agitator for the Biafra nation, being released from federal government custody.
Through the AGF, the senators scheduled to accompany Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe on his visit are anticipated to plead with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for Kanu’s release.
Newsmen were informed by sources close to the senators that the debate will take place at 10 am in the AGF Conference Hall at the Federal Ministry of Justice in Abuja.
According to the source, the meeting is a follow-up to a previous request for forgiveness for Kanu made by roughly fifty members of the House of Representatives.
Senator Abaribe’s special media assistant, Uchenna Awom, told reporters in Abuja on Tuesday that the new arrangement has been confirmed.
Recall that on June 23, over fifty members of the House of Representatives pleaded with President Bola Tinubu to grant Kanu’s release.
The federal lawmakers requested that Tinubu instruct the AGF to use Section 174 of the 1999 Constitution to end criminal charges against Kanu and grant him his release. They characterized themselves as “Concerned Federal Lawmakers for Peace and Security in the South East.”
Likewise, Obi Aguocha, a member of the House of Representatives for the Ikwuano, Umuahia North and South Federal Constituency, had approached former President Muhammadu Buhari to request Kanu’s release.
On Saturday, Aguocha paid Buhari a visit at his country residence in Daura, Katsina, and reportedly apologized on Kanu’s behalf for his “missteps and ill gestures.”
In regards to Kanu’s case, the politician was also reported to have contended that a political solution would answer the grieving parties’ concerns and foster national unity.
We received credible information that the Abaribe team would not only argue for the release of the leader of the outlawed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), but would also convince the Federal Government to withdraw the terrorism charges against Kanu via the AGF.
At the Federal High Court in Abuja, Senator Abaribe had guaranteed N100 million for Kanu when he was first detained and accused of terrorism-related offenses by the federal government.
But when Kanu skipped bail and left the nation, claiming that the military had raided his ancestral home in Abia State with the intention of killing him, the senator found himself in trouble.
The Nigerian authorities detained him in Kenya and brought him into the nation in 2021, despite the Federal High Court’s arrest warrant being issued for his arrest.
Since 2021, Kanu has been detained in the Department of State Services’ (DSS) custody on remand due to new allegations of terrorism brought against him.
Additionally, Kanu Godwin Agabi, a former Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), and Chief Mike Ozekhome, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, begged the federal government to pardon Kanu and grant his freedom from detention.
