‘We won’t release Kanu’– Buhari, insists on court trial for IPOB leader, Kanu, rules out state police in Nigeria

[By VICTOR NZE]

President Muhammadu Buhari, Wednesday, dashed the hopes of South East leaders who had expressed the hope of an out-of-court solution to the continued detention of leader of pro-secessionist group, the Indigenous people of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, as he insisted that the embattled activist will

This is also as the President ruled out the possibility of a state police regime in the country, as clamoured for by the South West leaders in the face of the growing insecurity and threat mounted by Fulani herdsmen’s violent attacks.

Buhari, in the first of a two part exclusive interview aired on ChannelsTV, Wednesday, Buhari said Kanu who is currently in the custody of the Department of State Security (DSS) undergoing trial on a 7-count charge bordering on treason, terrorism, arms possession, and four others, preferred against him by the Nigerian government, must defend himself in court.

According to Special Adviser to the President on Media & Publicity, Mr Femi Adesina, another interview session with Buhari by the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) will be aired on the network service of the station on Thursday, January 6 at 8 pm.

Buhari while fielding questions by the Channels crew, said Kanu, should defend himself in court for peddling false information about his regime while he was overseas.

This is despite the assurances the President gave to a delegation of South East leaders back in November 19 during their visit to the State House in Abuja led by one-time Federal Minister of Aviation in the First Republic, Chief Mbazulike Amaechi, where they requested for an the unconditional release of the detained secessionist leader.

Others in that delegation were; Chief Chukwuemeka Ezeife, former Governor of Anambra State, Bishop Sunday Onuoha of the Methodist Church, Chief Barrister Goddy Uwazurike, former President of Igbo socio-cultural group, Aka Ikenga, and Mr Tagbo Mbazulike Amaechi.

Buhari had accepted to consider the option of unconditional release of Kanu even as he had also admitted that the offer of unconditional release of the secessionist ‘runs contrary to the doctrine of separation of powers between the Executive and Judiciary.’

Buhari told the delegation of Igbo leaders that since his tenure as president in six years, ‘ nobody would say I have confronted or interfered in the work of the Judiciary.’

He, however, promised to consider the offer of unconditionally freeing the activist.

“You’ve made an extremely difficult demand on me as leader of this country. The implication of your request is very serious. In the last six years, since I became President, nobody would say I have confronted or interfered in the work of the Judiciary. God has spared you, and given you a clear head at this age, with very sharp memory. A lot of people half your age are confused already. But the demand you made is heavy. I will consider it,” Buhari told the Igbo delegation.

Continuing, the President reiterated his policy of non-interference with the Judiciary, saying; ‘when Kanu jumped bail, got arrested and brought back to the country, I said the best thing was to subject him to the system. Let him make his case in court, instead of giving very negative impressions of the country from outside. I feel it’s even a favour to give him that opportunity.’

Remarking earlier, Chief Amaechi had pleaded with Buhari to consider the gesture of unconditionally freeing Kanu.

“I don’t want to leave this planet without peace returning to my country. I believe in one big, united Nigeria, a force in Africa. Mr President, I want you to be remembered as a person who saw Nigeria burning, and you quenched the fire,” he said.

Amaechi had pleaded for a political, rather than military solution to the resolution to the secessionist agitations erupting across the country, assuring that if Kanu was released to him as the only First Republic Minister still alive, “he would no longer say the things he had been saying.”

Decrying the deplorable security situation in South East, the nonagenarian described it as ‘painful and pathetic,’ lamenting further that ‘businesses have collapsed, education is crumbling, and there is fear everywhere.’

However, during Wednesday’s interview, Buhari insisted he would not interfere with the judicial process in place for the trial of the activist, adding; ‘we cannot release him.’

“There is one institution that I wouldn’t interfere with, that is judiciary, Kanu’s case is with the judiciary but what I wonder is when Kanu was safely in Europe, abusing this administration and mentioning too many things, I thought he wants to come and defend himself on the accusations.

“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.

“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 problems against our country and thinking that you would not account for what you have been doing. Let him account for what he has been doing,” Buhari said.

On the contentious issue of state police, the President ruled it out as a viable resolution for Nigeria’s security challenges.

Many in the country had called for the decentralisation of the present policing structure on the grounds that State Governors are not in control of the system despite being referred to as the chief security officers of their domains.

“Find out the relationship between local government and the Governors. Are the third tier of government getting what they are supposed to get constitutionally? Are they getting it?

“Let the people in local government tell you the truth, the fight between local governments and the governor,” Buhari said.