Malami reveals that Buhari may consider releasing Ipob leader Nnamdi Kanu from detention

ATTORNEY-general of the federation Abubakar Malami has revealed that President Muhammadu Buhari will take on board the interest of Nigerians as he considers whether to release Indigenous People of Biafra (Ipob) leader Nnamdi Kanu.

Highly controversial, Mr Kanu has been campaigning for the recreation of the independent republic of Biafra which broke away from Nigeria between July 1967 and January 1970 during the civil war. His campaign, which has led to the phenomenal growth of Ipob, has set him at odds with the Nigerian government who him arrested and put on trial for treason.

While the case was still pending, Mr Kanu was granted bail in April 2017 on health grounds but skipped his bail after flouting the conditions given to him by the court and fled Nigeria. However, in a dramatic development in June last year, Mr Kanu was abducted in Kenya in a commando operation carried out by Nigerian security operatives  and flown to Nigeria where his trial has resumed.

Over the last six months, Mr Kanu's trial has polarised the nation, with Igbo groups calling for his immediate release and the dropping of all charges against him as part of a rapproachment process. President Buhari has come under a lot of pressure lately to accede to the demands of these Igbo groups but northern hardliners are also pressing him not to give ground.

Mr Malami said: “By way of general statements to the two issues presented, the issue relating to Kanu and by extension, Ipob, what I can tell you for certain is that the decision of the president is based fundamentally and at all times on public interest consideration. In the art of governance and what I have come to learn about the mind and heart of the president, Muhammadu Buhari, is to consider the 200m as against the limited people.

“By extension, the issue of Kanu, what would as well govern the decision of the president in terms of whatever request is presented is the public interest as against the limited sectional interest of it.” Recently, some Igbo leaders led by former aviation minister in the First Republic, Chief Mbazulike Amaechi, met with President Buhari at the State House, Abuja and asked him to grant the Ipob leader an unconditional release.