Leader of Nigeria’s Biafra Separatist group; Nnamdi Kanu has threatened to make Nigeria ungovernable if the Nigeria government dare tries to arrest him
Leader of the now proscribed separatist group known as the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu; who was arrested by the Department of State Services (DSS) in 2015 and released on bail in April, 2017, has threatened to make Nigeria ungovernable if the Government of Nigeria revokes his bail and issue an international arrest warrant for his arrest.
Nnamdi Kanu passed the aforementioned warning after Justice Binta Nyako of the Federal high court in Abuja Nigeria, revoked his bail and orders for his arrest on the 28th of March, 2019.
Mr Nnamdi Kanu is currently based in UK and claimed to have changed his nationality.
“I am not a Nigerian citizen; therefore, your bail revocation is completely meaningless to me. My devotion to the absolute and puritanical pursuit of the total restoration of the sovereignty of the Republic of Biafra is unwavering said the IPOB leader.
This was how the event unfolded…
In 2015, the Director of Radio Biafra and leader of Biafra separatist group (known as the “Indigenous people of Biafra”, IPOB); Nnamdi Kanu, was arrested in a hotel in Lagos, Nigeria by the Department of State Services (DSS) in 2015.
He was arrested for criminal conspiracy and leading an illegal movement in Nigeria.
After spending 2 years in jail for championing the secession of Biafra (an oil rich area in Nigeria), Nnamdi Kanu was released in April, 2017 for medical reasons, following an order from the Federal High Court in Abuja.
Kanu was granted bail under very stringent conditions which include producing a Jew Rabbi as surety.
However, the charges of criminal conspiracy and leading an illegal movement levied against him by the Federal High Court in Abuja, wasn’t lifted.
Mr Nnamdi Kanu; who was released on bail in April., 2017, was scheduled to appear in court in July, 2017 (for the next hearing).
However after Nnamdi Kanu was released on bail, he went off the radar i.e. he went missing.
Kanu and his parents got missing after their family house was allegedly invaded by soldiers on September 14, 2017
The disappearance of the IPOB leader, ignited lots of controversies and rumors.
Many Biafra activists said he was allegedly assassinated by the Nigeria government.
However in October, 2018, news emerged that the Biafra leader has been sported in Israel Nigeria.
To cut a long story short, the failure of Nnamdi Kanu to show up at the Federal High Court in Abuja after he was granted bail in April, 2017, caused the court to revoke his bail.
On the 28th of March, 2019, Justice Binta Nyako of the Federal high court in Abuja Nigeria, revoked the bail of Nnamdi Kanu and orders for his arrest. The court in its ruling, said it has given the order because Kanu had failed to appear in court after his bail was granted in April 2017.
In reaction to the court ruling (ordering for his arrest); the Biafra leader; Nnamdi Kanu; has warned the Federal Government not to provoke him as he has the power to foment trouble that will make Nigeria ungovernable.
Kanu in his statement, described an alleged plan by the Federal Government to arrest him with the International Police as an effort in futility, stressing that he is a British citizen and so could not be subjected to any Nigerian law.
His statement in part reads as follows…
“I am not a Nigerian citizen; therefore, your bail revocation is completely meaningless to me. My devotion to the absolute and puritanical pursuit of the total restoration of the sovereignty of the Republic of Biafra is unwavering.
My lawyers are waiting for an Interpol red notice against my name and all hell will break loose. If the intention of Binta Nyako is to curtail my travels, thereby limiting IPOB diplomatic offensive, then let me assure Biafrans that our enemies have failed.
“Should they request Interpol intervention in this matter, I will give my lawyers here in the UK the instructions we need to launch a no-holds-barred legal assault against Nigeria.
“So, I am waiting for them. Europe and Interpol are not a bunch of wild beasts like Nigerian law courts and her security services. In Europe there is rule of law which is also binding on Interpol.
The treasonable felony charge they levelled against me is not a crime that could be committed by merely carrying Biafran flag about and preaching secession, but one that could only be committed using guns, bombs and other weapons, which my group has never been associated with. I warn the Federal Government not to dare me because I’m capable of causing trouble for Nigeria.”
Last year, Human Rights NGO Amnesty International accused the
Nigerian government of killing some 150 separatists during a pro-Biafra protest.The Nigerian government rejected the allegations.
