Fani-Kayode claims Nnamdi Kanu is being held on naval warship off the coast of Bayelsa State

FORMER aviation minister Chief Femi Fani-Kayode has revealed that he knows the whereabouts of Indigenous People of Biafra (Ipob) leader Nnamdi Kanu claiming that he is being held on a Nigerian Navy warship off the coast of Bayelsa State.

Mr Kanu was arrested in Lagos in December 2015 and is currently standing trial, where he is facing treasonable felony charges. Released on bail, Mr Kanu, who lived in the UK before his arrest, was released on health grounds last April but went missing five months later after soldiers invaded his father's compound in Abia State.

Since September last year, nobody has seen Mr Kanu in public or heard from him and there has been a lot of speculation regarding his whereabouts. Mr Kanu's family maintains his home was raided by security forces and the Ipob leader is being held in government custody but the military authorities deny his home was raided.

Chief of army staff Lt General Tukur Buratai has testified in court that the military is unaware of Mr Kanu's whereabouts when responding to a suit ordering the Nigerian Army to produce him. It has been claimed that Mr Kanu has gone into hiding to avoid arrest, while some rumours indicate that he fled Nigeria and is hiding in Ghana.

Yesterday, Chief Fani-Kayode stoked the speculation further by claiming that Mr Kanu is being kept on a Nigerian naval warship far off the coast of Bayelsa State. Making the revelation on his Twitter handle, Chief Fani-Kayode claims that the Nigerian authorities are holding the Ipob leader.

He said: “Intelligence reports suggest that my friend and brother Nnamdi Kanu is being kept on a Nigerian naval warship far off the coast of Bayelsa and that Buhari intends to keep him there until 2019 and then drop him in the Atlantic ocean after winning the February elections. Know this, the incarceration, torture and murder of Nnamdi Kanu will not go unavenged or unpunished.

"The God of Justice will serve His judgement on all those involved in this sinister, gruesome and homicidal initiative. Buhari will soon know that God rules in the affairs of men.”

Mr Kanu's father, Eze Israel Okwu-Kanu, is the traditional ruler of Afaraukwu Ibeku, Umuahia, in Abia State and since the military operation, he too has fled his palace and has not been seen since.  Mr Kanu's family has petitioned the United Nations, the European Union and other foreign countries, accusing the Nigerian Army of looting valuables from their home during a raid on October 8.