Nobel Laureate Professor Wole Soyinka has criticised the way and manner with which the Nigerian government ‘arrested’ the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Ipob, Nnnamdi Kanu.

On June 30th, Justice Minister Abubakar Malami announced that Kanu has been returned to Nigeria.

“We want to inform Nigerians that government working with security agencies has succeeded in attempt to arrest Nnamdi Kanu and we have brought him back to Nigeria.”

Since then most Nigerians have been wondering if Kanu received the Umaru Dikko treatment.

In 1984, during the military dictatorship of Muhammadu Buhari, mercenaries were hired to grab, drug and crate back to the country Umaru Dikko, a former Transaction minister who was accused of embezzlement.

But in an interview with BBC Pidgin, Prof. Soyinka accuse the Buhari administration of repeating what it did in 1984.

“It’s not for me to tell the government to prepare itsef because when the truth about the way in which they arrested Nnamdi Kanu comes out, it will be surprising. People are trying to justify the arrest, but I believe that Nigeria acted outside international law.”

“The second issue has to do with the way Kanu conducted himself outside the nation. The level of hate speech from Kanu is unfortunate. But for me, Hate speech is an issue that the laws of any nation can judge so it comes back to the issue of wether it is right to quote and unquote ‘kidnap’, they can keep saying intercept as much as they want, but I think that they kidnapped Nnamdi Kanu and that is wrong internationally and it is wrong morally.” The Prof added.

On the way forward, Prof. Soyinka said government need to reexamine why people don’t trust them at all and stop the approach they are taking on groups calling for separation from the country.

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In July 1984, the then military dictatorship of Muhammadu Buhari sent mercenaries to the UK to kidnap and crate back to the country former transportation Minister Umaru Dikko, who was accused of embezzlement.

That episode ended in an unmitigated disaster, Dikko was eventually rescued by ScotlandYard detectives, four of his abductors admitted to being mercenaries hired by a Nigerian businessman and diplomatic relations between Nigeria and the UK was suspended for two years.

Many years later the Muhammadu Buhari government announced that it succeeded in arresting and extraditing Biafra separatist, Nnamdi Kanu, the Ipob leader back to the country.

The government’s silence on where and how they arrested the Biafran separatist has raised a lots of questions.

Did Nnamdi Kanu received the “Umaru Dikko” treatment? Some have wondered.

Quick facts about Nnamdi Kanu arrest and trial

The Nigerian government on Tuesday took the leader of the banned Indigenous People of Biafra [IPOB], to court to continue his trial on charges of treason.

Nnamdi Kanu appeared before Justice Binta Nyako of the Federal High Court, Abuja.

The judge gave an order to the DSS [Nigeria secret police] to lock him up in their custody pending the start of his speedy trial on 26th of July.

Nnamdi Kanu was arrested on treason charges in 2015 before court granted him bail in April 2017

The separatist’s followers say his arrest is against his fundamental right.

But Associate Professor of Public Law at the Rivers State University, Richard Wokocha says Kanu’s arrest is in line with the Nigerian constitution.

Kanu is facing 11 count charge which borders on treasonable felony and other terrorism charges.

The Ipob leader jumped bail in 2017 and fled to the UK since the September of that year. In March 2019 a court revoked Nnamdi Kanu’s bail and ordered his re-arrest.

Nnamdi Kanu arrest: when and where trial will take place

On the 26th of July full trial will start at the Federal High Court Abuja.It will be an accelerated hearing.

The prosecution counsel which are government lawyers, must arrange all their witnesses plus evidences.

This time around, Kanu’s lawyers will be present in court to represent him.

The case is scheduled to hold in court two floor five at Abuja Federal High Court. Justice Binta Nyako will be presiding over the case.

Government lawyers can apply for witness protection. That will mean the press will be barred from covering the event.

[Nnamdi Kanu arrest] – What the Constitution says?

BBCPidgin reached out to some constitutional lawyer about the complications of this case and what the law said.

Former Chairman of NBA OCJ Okocha and Marshal Abubakar say this will be an interesting case due to the charges against Nnamdi Kanu.

Both lawyers believe the government is on the right side of this case.

Okocha and Abubakar both SANs gave the following reasons:

At the time of Kanu’s arrest he was a fugitive and so the manner in which he was arrested is okay.
Government had earlier issued a bench warrant for his arrest as he had violated his bail afta he jumped bail.

Nnamdi Kanu trial: What possibly punishment is he facing?

Again the two legal experts say:

If he is found guilty on the charge of treasonable felony, Nnamdi Kanu will likely face capital punishment.

This is because around the world, treason the highest civil offense anyone can commit. it carries the death penalty as the maximum sentence and it can also carry life in prisonment

The Nigerian Constitution does not give any part of the country the right to declare Independence or breakaway.

So anyone engaging in any form of agitation for secessions, such persons are engaging in a treasonable offence.

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The governor of Kaduna state Nasir El-Rufai has told reporters that he was happy when he heard the news that the Nigerian government had arrested IPOB leader, Nnamdi Kanu.

The governor further said that Kanu’s actions have led to the increased violence witnessed across the country and it will be good for him to face justice.

“I wad happy when I heard about Kanu’s arrest and I congratulate the federal government. This is someone that is fanning violence in Nigeria and it’s a good to thing for him to face justice.”

On the question that government doesn’t act fast on other similar issues like banditry and Boko Haram, El-Rufai said people are comparing ‘apples and oranges’ as they are not the same issues.

“Kanu’s issue is a different issue to these ones you mentioned, he is calling for the separation of Nigeria in violent a way while still holding a Nigeria passport.”

on Tuesday 29, June 2021, Nigeria’s Minister of justice and Attorney General of the federation Abubakar Malami broke the news of the arrest of Nnamdi Kanu on Sunday 27, June.

Mr Malami said they intercepted and extradited Kanu to Nigeria.

Multiple media reports have claimed that Kanu who is also a British citizen was arrested while in Adis Ababa, Ethiopia.

“We want to inform Nigerians that government working with security agencies had succeeded in attempt to arrest Nnamdi Kanu and we have brought him back to Nigeria.” Malami told a news conference on Tuesday Afternoon.

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Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), was arrested and extradited to Nigeria on Sunday.

The IPOB leader, who was in court facing charges bordering on treasonable felony for his campaign for the secession of Republic of Biafra, jumped bail in 2017 after a military action, code-named “Operation Python Dance”, targeted his family house in Abia state.

Kanu has been living in London since then but Nigerian security officials say that the operation to re-arrest and put him back on trial had been “ongoing for a while” until success was recorded on Sunday, June 27.

Since news of his arrest broke on Tuesday afternoon, some have speculated that he was arrested by British officials where he lives others speculated that he was kidnapped and crated back to Nigeria to face trial.

“He was not arrested in the UK or Brazil or Czech Republic. He was not crated either, contrary to speculations,” a security source told newsmen.

Nigeria’s Minister for justice Abubakar Malami, who broke the news to reporters also failed to mention how exactly the Ipob leader was arrested, simply saying he was “intercepted” and extradited to Nigeria.

However, several reports online have painted a clearer picture of how Kanu was arrested, a report in TheWill said he was intercepted in Ethiopia after Abubakar Malami had written to authorities in that country and sort the assistance of Interpol to facilitate the arrest.

Another report on ThisDay specifically named Addis Ababa, the capital city of Ethiopia, as the location.

The publication further said Kanu was lured by security operatives with the impression that he was going to be given some “millions of dollars” in cash donations to the cause of his organization.

He was said to have decided to collect the money himself “because of the huge amount involved”.

Kanu even kept his associates in the dark about his mission, according to the security sources who said the top hierarchy did not know his whereabouts on the day he was arrested.

His lifestyles consisted mostly of going out with different women, buying expensive pieces of jewelry, chartering aircraft, and drinks. And because he got many gullible people who were donating to his so-called IPOB, he had so much money to play with such that he even hired lobby groups for his propaganda activities,” the security source told THISDAY.

Nnamdi Kanu has since been remanded to DSS custody where he will remain until his trial resumes on July 26.

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Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra has been arrested and will soon be charged to a Nigerian court.

Justice Minister Abubakar Malami announced that Kanu was arrested and expedited back to Nigeria on Sunday.

“We want to inform Nigerians that government working with security agencies has succeeded in arresting Nnamdi Kanu and we’ve brought him back to Nigeria.” Malami told reporters in Abuja, the nation’s political capital, on Tuesday Afternoon.

“Kanu will still answer for the 11 charges which he had earlier faced in court before he tried to escape justice and we have already re-present before court.”

The minister added :

“Security agencies arrested Kanu on the 27th of this month (Sunday) and as I am taking to you he is on his way to court.” Malami added.

What are the charges Nnamdi Kanu will be standing trial for?

Charges against Kanu include sedition, ethnic incitement and treasonable felony.

Shortly after Malami’s address to reporters on Tuesday, a Nigerian court ordered the detention of the Ipob leader.

Federal High Court in Abuja ordered that Kanu be detained in a DSS facility. He will be in the custody of DSS, which is Nigeria’s secret police, until at least July 26.

That is when his trial will start, according to Justice Binta Nyako who gave the order.

Ipob & Kanu lawyer react

Lawyer to Nnamdi Kanu say he doesn’t see the call for self-determination by Kanu as a crime.

Alloy Ejimakor who is also an Ipob member said he expects the international community to protect Kanu’s political freedom to demand independence from Nigeria.

Ejimakor however expressed regrets that the international community might have helped plan Kanu’s arrest.

The lawyer to Ipob and their Leader, Nnamdi Kanu said the Federal government caught them unawares.

Nnamdi Kanu 2017 arrest and trial

A Federal High Court in Abuja in March of 2019 ordered the arrest of the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra.

At that time, Nnamdi Kanu was accused of treasonable felony.

Justice Binta Nyako said the trial of Kanu who has failed to appear in court since April 25, 2017 without any explanation will begin even if he was absent.

The judge based her decision on the provisions of section 352 (4) of the Administrative of Criminal Justice Act, 2015.

Kanu’s lawyer at the time, Mr Ifeanyi Ejiofor opposed to the prosecuting counsel, Magaji Labaran’s oral application.

Ejiofor asked the court to give him more time to produce his client before the court. But the court declined.

In January 2018, a Federal High Court in Abuja, threw out the case brought by Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) bring to free Kanu.

Ipob at that time prayed the court to order then Chief of Army staff, Tukur Burutai to release their leader, Nnamdi Kanu.

Nnamdi Kanu at that time had disappeared after he got bail in April, 2017.

Nigerian senator Enyinnaya Abaribe and two others stood as sureties for the IPOB leader’s bail that time.

At some point court asked Senator Abaribe, Immanuel Shalum Okabenmabu and Tochukwu Uchendu to explain Nnamdi Kanu’s where abouts.

Nnamdi Kanu profile/biography

Nnamdi Kanu formed his IPOB group in 2012 and many believed the group to be a breakaway branch from MASSOB which Ralph Uwazirike establish in 1999.

The Nigerian government had declared IPOB as a terrorists group and banned their activities.

The agenda of IPOB is for state’s in the south -east to break away from Nigeria and form their own independent country of Biafra.

By 2020 Nnamdi Kanu formed the armed wing of his secessionist group the Eastern Security Network [ESN].

Kanu said the ESN was to provide internal security against herders invasion of farmlands for the Igbo speaking south-eastern region of Nigeria.

Mazi Nnamdi Kanu [as many of his followers call him] was a relatively obscure figure until 2009.

It was in 2009 that Kanu started Radio Biafra, an online radio station which campaigns for an independent state for mainly Igbo speaking people of Nigeria.

Radio Biafra is broadcasting to Nigeria from London.

Though he grew up in Nigeria south-east. Kanu attended the University of Nsukka, later moving to the UK before graduating.

Soon after setting up Ipob in 2014, he began to speak to gatherings of large Igbos in the diaspora, calling for Biafran independence.

In some of his comments, he begged Biafrans to take up arms against the Nigerian state.

In recent times, Nigerian police has blamed most of the attacks across the southeast on the ESN security outfit which the IPOB leader Nnamdi Kanu set up.

In February 2021, social networking site, Facebook deleted the verified account of Nnamdi Kanu from their platform.

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According to a report by Premium Times, the one-year deal would cost Kanu and IPOB $750,000.

The report said the deal was signed in February with Kanu’s signature for the service of BW Global Group (BWGG LLC), co-owned by Jeffrey Birrel and Alan White, registered in Washington D.C.

It added that the agreement took effect from March 1, 2021, months after an earlier deal with a U.S.-based lobbying firm, Mercury Public Affairs LLC, expired.

The details of the deals were sourced from the contractors’ registration statements and agreements filed at the Foreign Agents Registration Unit of the U.S Department of Justice.

The filings by BW Global Group (BWGG) after negotiations were concluded in February show that the firm was engaged by Mr Kanu to undertake “political activities” in the U.S. and provide management support to IPOB.

The political activities described include engaging the U.S. government, Congress and the Department of State, and engaging policymakers on behalf of IPOB.

The agreement, signed on February 24, 2021, by Mr Kanu, another representative of IPOB, Rita Eze, and a co-owner of BWGG, Mr White.

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Several locals have shared videos of military planes hovering over their communities with reports of airstrikes and casualties.

In one video shared by a Biafra activist Emeka Gift, military aircraft can be seen hovering above with the sound of chaos in the background.

He captioned the video “There is currently air bombardments in Orlu Imo State by Nig soldiers. Many innocent people have been killed with airstrikes. We also learned that market places were affected.

Nig military is currently looking for #ESN who are checkmating the activities of killer Fulani herdsmen”

https://twitter.com/EmekaGift/status/1362270113991434243

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Kanu said both Buhari and governors lacked the moral right to criticize the security outfit recently launched by IPOB.

In a series of tweets, the IPOB leader wondered why the Buhari-led government would not prosecute Fulani herdsmen, since the government claimed they were foreigners.

If the FULANI terrorists invading your communities are FOREIGNERS as late @MBuhari had said, then Nigeria is at war with FOREIGN elements but instead of fighting them off & protecting you, the @NGRPresident is enabling them. That’s TREASON against Nigerians. Open your eyes!

— Mazi Nnamdi Kanu (@MaziNnamdiKanu) February 1, 2021

He also faulted the decision of the Nigerian Army to rehabilitate terrorists.

Kanu wrote: “When your President does not prosecute TERRORISTS but pardons and gives them scholarships. When your Governors negotiate with and BANDITS and pay them.

“When your security agencies rehabilitate terrorists and induct them in your Army. They lose the moral right to traduce #ESN. We move!”.

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Kanu revealed this during his New Year message, in a broadcast on Radio Biafra on Friday.

In a statement made available to newsmen on Saturday by the group’s Media and Publicity Secretary, Comrade Emma Powerful, Kanu described the British government as hell-bent on supporting the unity of Nigeria, at the detriment of the “South-East region that is part of the components that hold the centre”.

“You people think we are fighting the Fulani. Who is Fulani? Those stopping Biafra is Britain because they know what Biafra is all about. Because (Governor Dave) Umahi wants to be the vice president, then I must allow Fulani from Mali to come and kill our people?”

Nnamdi Kanu is a London based Nigerian activist and the leader of IPOB. The main aim of IPOB is to achieve an independent state of Biafra from the old Eastern region of Nigeria through a referendum.

In September 2017, the Federal High Court in Abuja gave judicial backing to the executive order of President Muhammadu Buhari, outlawing IPOB and its activities in Nigeria.

But Nnamdi Kanu and his group have remained defiant, in December Kanu launched a security outfit in South-Eastern states of Nigeria describing it as a move to solve the regions security crisis.

He said, “Having waited for many years for our governors to secure our land as Yoruba governors did to no avail, we, the people of the East comprising of South- East and South-South have resolved to defend our land from the ravages of terrorism and extrajudicial killings.

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Shortly afterward, rumors began online that the president has died and was replaced by a clone.

The man who started those rumors was Nnamdi Kanu, a British-Nigerian political activist. He is also the leader of the separatist group; The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), and director of London-based Radio Biafra.

The main aim of IPOB is to create an independent state of Biafra for the people of the old eastern region of Nigeria through the referendum.

To many Nigerians, Nnamdi Kanu is a trouble maker, while to those who believe in the Biafran dream, he is a hero and a leader. He is seen as almost a messianic figure; one chosen to lead the struggle to the Promised Land of Biafra.

To understand how one man can inspire thousands into giving their absolute devotion to his cause, we have to go back to the very beginning of the Nigerian state.

Bitter history

In 1914, the British amalgamated a number of their West African colonies largely for administrative conveniences.

Then in 1960, Nigeria became independent of the British, and as with many other new African states, the borders of the country did not reflect precolonial ethnic, cultural, religious, or political boundaries.

The northern region of the country has a Muslim majority. The southern population is predominantly Christian, primarily made up of territories of indigenous Yoruba and Biafra Kingdoms in the west and east respectively. Following independence, the country was demarcated primarily along ethnic lines.

In 1967, civil war broke out after Igbo military general and governor of the Eastern region Chukwemeka Ojukwu proclaimed independence from Nigeria and the creation of the Republic of Biafra.

It was a brutal war that lasted almost two and a half years, during which about two million Biafran civilians (most of them small children) died from starvation caused by the total blockade of the region by the Nigerian government.

Wrong political calculation

In February 2013, a new political party the All Progressives Congress (APC) was formed in anticipation of the 2015 general elections. The party was the result of a merger of the country’s three biggest opposition parties; the Action Congress of Nigeria ACN (popular in the west), the All Nigeria Peoples Party ANPP (popular in the north), the Congress for Progressive Change CPC (also popular in the north) and the new PDP, a faction of the then ruling People’s Democratic Party.

This new party and their candidate Muhammadu Buhari would go on to win the general elections defeating the then incumbent Goodluck Jonathan of PDP by53% to Jonathan’s 44% of votes cast.

The elections would underline an old divide in Nigeria’s politics.

See states in the south-east and south-south parts of the country that made up the old Biafra voted massively against the APC. This is the point at which Nnamdi Kanu entered politics.

In July 2015, reports began to emerge in the media that the frequencies of Radio Biafra have been jammed. Radio Biafra is an online radio station based in London and it is owned and operated by Nnamdi Kanu. On it, he shares his opinions on how a group of southern states of Nigeria should break away and form an independent state of Biafra. Kanu does not hide his tribalism, he often uses derogatory terms to describe other Nigerian tribes, and in fact, labeled the rest of the country a zoo.

Radio Biafra, the medium that brought Kanu to the limelight would also be his biggest undoing. Through deliberate and sustained seeding of incorrect information, once a week he addresses his followers, many of them spread in countries across the world. His claims are always aimed to support the Biafran narrative, even when those claims negate reality.

To Nnamdi Kanu, Nigeria is a failed state and the only solution is to dismember the country along ethnic and religious lines. But to other Igbos, Kanu is a megalomaniac using the history of Biafra to enrich himself.

Saint or megalomaniac, the Nigerian state has avoided answering questions about the civil war, and to many Kanu is the only person trying to find answers.

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