The Senior Special Assistant to President Bola Tinubu on Community Engagement (South East), Chioma Nweze, on Monday said the President will not make any pronouncement on the ongoing trial of the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu.
Nweze made the statement while briefing State House reporters after meeting with President Tinubu at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.
Her comment comes against the backdrop of heightened concerns raised by some groups, particularly in the South-East, calling for Kanu’s release.
She explained that the matter remains before the courts, and as such, the President cannot interfere with the judicial process.
“President Tinubu cannot make any pronouncement on the case of Nnamdi Kanu because it is a matter before the court,” Nweze said. “He respects the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary.”
Kanu, leader of the proscribed IPOB, has been facing trial on charges including treasonable felony and terrorism-related offences. He was first arrested in 2015 and later granted bail in 2017 but fled the country after a military operation in his hometown, Afaraukwu, Abia State.
In June 2021, he was rearrested and extradited to Nigeria, where he has remained in the custody of the Department of State Services (DSS).
The Federal High Court has set November 20 to deliver judgment in Kanu’s terrorism case, after he refused for the sixth time to enter a defence against government allegations that he led an outlawed group seeking to separate the South-East from the rest of Nigeria.
