Nnamdi Kanu, the head of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), was not detained while under the government of former President Goodluck Jonathan, according to Aloy Ejimakor, Special Counsel to Kanu.
Kanu was not detained at that time, according to Ejimakor, because Jonathan did not view self-determination as a crime.
Kanu was first detained in 2015 on suspicion of treason, terrorism, and running an illegal society.
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Despite being the subject of legal action, Justice Binta Nyako of the Abuja Federal High Court granted him bail in 2017. After being freed, Kanu departed for Europe.
He was later captured again in Kenya in 2021 and returned to Nigeria.
Since that time, the Department of State Services (DSS) has been keeping him in detention while his trial is ongoing.
Aloy Ejimakor emphasized the fact that the freedom to self-determination has been recognized on an international, national, and continental level during the ‘Free Nnamdi Kanu’ meeting in Washington.
He highlighted that neither Nigerian nor British laws were broken in creating IPOB.
Ejimakor emphasized that the belief at the time that self-determination was not a crime was the reason Kanu was not arrested between 2012 and 2015.
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He did point out that the government that came to power in May 2015 adopted a different approach and treated the exercise of self-determination as a crime.
Kanu was arrested in Lagos and accused of treason, illegal importation, and insulting the president as a result of the shift in mindset toward self-determination.
The conference statement made by Ejimakor clarifies the divergent perspectives of the former and current administrations on self-determination and its implications for Kanu’s detention and judicial proceedings.
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