By Kayode Lawal Hope of release from the federal government’s custody appears to be in the offing for the detained Biafra nation agita...
By Kayode Lawal
Hope of release from the federal government’s custody
appears to be in the offing for the detained Biafra nation agitator, Nnamdi
Kanu as Senators from the South-East region of Nigeria will today, Wednesday,
July 3, hold a crucial parley with the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF)
and Minister of Justice, Prince Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, to make a case for his
release.
The Senators billed to be led on the visit by Senator
Enyinnaya Abaribe are expected to convey their plea for Kanu’s release to
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu through the AGF.
Sources close to the Senators confirmed to DAILY POST that
the parley would be held at the Conference Hall of the AGF at the Federal
Ministry of Justice in Abuja by 10 am.
The source said that the meeting is a follow up to an
earlier request made by about 50 House of Representatives members seeking
forgiveness for Kanu.
Uchenna Awom, a Special Assistant on media to Senator
Abaribe confirmed the new move to newsmen on Tuesday in Abuja.
It would be recalled that on June 23, about 50 members of
the House of Representatives had begged President Bola Tinubu to order the
release of Kanu.
The federal lawmakers, who identified themselves as
“Concerned Federal Lawmakers for Peace and Security in the South East”, asked
Tinubu to direct the AGF to invoke Section 174 of the 1999 Constitution to terminate
criminal charges against Kanu and release him.
Similarly, Obi Aguocha, a House of Representatives member
representing Ikwuano, Umuahia North and South Federal Constituency, had sought
the support of former President Muhammadu Buhari for the release of Kanu.
Aguocha, who visited Buhari on Saturday at his country home
in Daura, Katsina, was said to have apologised on behalf of Kanu for his
“missteps and ill gestures”.
The lawmaker was also said to have argued that a political
resolution would address the concerns of the aggrieved parties and promote
unity within the country in respect of Kanu’s matter.
DAILY POST was reliably informed that apart from making a
case for the release of the leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of
Biafra (IPOB), the Abaribe team would also persuade the Federal Government
through the AGF to drop the terrorism charges against Kanu.
Senator Abaribe had stood surety for Kanu in the sum of
N100m when he was first arrested and charged with terrorism offences by the
federal government at the Federal High Court in Abuja.
The Senator, however, ran into stormy waters when Kanu
jumped the bail and fled the country on the ground that the military invaded
his ancestral home in Abia State with a view to kill him.
While an arrest warrant was issued by the Federal High Court
against him for his arrest, the government of Nigeria intercepted him in Kenya
and brought him to the country in 2021.
Kanu has since 2021 been remanded at the Department of State
Services, DSS, custody following the fresh terrorism charges filed against him.
Also, a former Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and
Minister of Justice, Kanu Godwin Agabi and Chief Mike Ozekhome, both Senior
Advocate of Nigeria had pleaded with the federal government to forgive Kanu and
order his release from custody.
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