President Muhammadu Buhari says his government will not pardon the leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, stressing that the IPOB leader must defend himself in court.
“Nigerians know that I don’t interfere with the judiciary,” the President told Channels Television in an exclusive interview that aired on Wednesday.
Buhari said, “Let him be listened to. For those who are saying that we should release him, no we cannot release him.
“So, we are giving him an opportunity to defend himself in our system, not to be abusing us from Europe as if he was not a Nigerian. Let him come here with us and then criticise us here. Nigerians know that I don’t interfere with the judiciary, let him be listened to. But those who are saying that he should be released, no, we cannot release him.”
Though the president did not rule out the possibility of a political resolution.
“There is a possibility of political solution; if people behave themselves, all well and good, but you can’t go to a foreign country and keep on sending incorrect economic and security problem against your country and thinking that you will never have to account for what you have been doing. Let him account for what he has been doing.”
Mr. Buhari had in 2020 promised to consider the request of some leaders from the South East region to release Kanu who is facing treason charges preferred against him by the Nigerian Government.
The Igbo leader, led by Minister of Aviation in the First Republic, Chief Mbazulike Amaechi, had visited the President in Aso Rock and requested the unconditional release of the detained secessionist leader.
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