The facts behind the arrest of Nnamdi Kanu, the IPOB leader has started to emerge.
Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), was lured to a location in an African country with a promise of cash donation in millions of dollars,
According to a source, Kanu was captured after Nigeria’s attorney general, Abubakar Malami wrote to the Ethiopian government through the ministry of foreign affairs alerting them that Kanu, a wanted fugitive was in their country.
The government also contacted INTERPOL for assistance in arresting and extraditing Kanu to Nigeria to face his charges.
He was intercepted last weekend and immediately repatriated to Nigeria. Kanu was on Tuesday arraigned in court and remanded in DSS custody. His case was adjourned till July 26th.
It will be recalled that Kanu jumped bail in 2019 and has been on the run since. He is currently facing charges of treasonable felony which carries the death penalty.
Military sources said the plan to arrest Kanu started in March 2021 as the attacks on police stations and killing of security personnel soared in the South-East and South-South states, with the IGP promising the President that Kanu would be arrested.
The Inspector-General of Police, Usman Baba, and the Department of State Services (DSS) worked with the Nigerian Intelligence Agency and the International Police for months to ensure the arrest of Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, to look good in President Muhammadu Buhari’s eyes.
We learnt Kanu’s arrest was at the top of the agenda in the meeting President Buhari held with the IGP and service chiefs on the South-East situation in the first week of May.
“The IGP was asked to form a special tactical squad in the South-East. He was told he would be assisted by the Department of State Services and with the deployment of military personnel even from the North-East to the South-East and South-South to make arrests. The IGP and the military were asked to locate the ESN and IPOB camps and go after key commanders to extract top information,” one of the sources said.
“It was around that time that the security operatives recovered several mobile communication gadgets from both dead and arrested ESN commanders; they extracted information from them which was all in the build-up to arrest Kanu. They went after IPOB’s top lawyer, Ejiofor, in the first week of June, as part of the plan to extract top information about Kanu. It has always been about arresting Kanu all along,” another source added.
“You recall that the President commanded the security chiefs and IGP to adopt certain security measures in the South-East and the South-South zones. These were some of the measures. The IGP was to take the lead and the president directed that he should be given support by all other security arms,” another source volunteered.
“The Twitter ban was also to bring a large gap between Kanu, mostly active on Twitter, and his vast followers in Nigeria, especially in the South-East.”
The source added that, "He was not arrested in London or anywhere in the United Kingdom. Diplomats confirmed that Kanu was picked up somewhere in Africa. The family and IPOB are very unhappy. Apparently, they have known about the trailing arrest for about some time,” a top source had stated.
Speaking in Umuahia, the Abia state capital, Nnamdi Kanu's younger brother, Emmanuel Kanu had said the IPOB leader stood on the path of truth and committed no crime to deserve any persecution.
According to him, Nnamdi was only asking for the freedom of Biafrans which is their fundamental human right hence, his rights should be respected.
He said the whole world is watching how the Nigerian Government will handle Kanu.
According to a source, Kanu was captured after Nigeria’s attorney general, Abubakar Malami wrote to the Ethiopian government through the ministry of foreign affairs alerting them that Kanu, a wanted fugitive was in their country.
The government also contacted INTERPOL for assistance in arresting and extraditing Kanu to Nigeria to face his charges.
He was intercepted last weekend and immediately repatriated to Nigeria. Kanu was on Tuesday arraigned in court and remanded in DSS custody. His case was adjourned till July 26th.
It will be recalled that Kanu jumped bail in 2019 and has been on the run since. He is currently facing charges of treasonable felony which carries the death penalty.
Military sources said the plan to arrest Kanu started in March 2021 as the attacks on police stations and killing of security personnel soared in the South-East and South-South states, with the IGP promising the President that Kanu would be arrested.
The Inspector-General of Police, Usman Baba, and the Department of State Services (DSS) worked with the Nigerian Intelligence Agency and the International Police for months to ensure the arrest of Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, to look good in President Muhammadu Buhari’s eyes.
We learnt Kanu’s arrest was at the top of the agenda in the meeting President Buhari held with the IGP and service chiefs on the South-East situation in the first week of May.
“The IGP was asked to form a special tactical squad in the South-East. He was told he would be assisted by the Department of State Services and with the deployment of military personnel even from the North-East to the South-East and South-South to make arrests. The IGP and the military were asked to locate the ESN and IPOB camps and go after key commanders to extract top information,” one of the sources said.
“It was around that time that the security operatives recovered several mobile communication gadgets from both dead and arrested ESN commanders; they extracted information from them which was all in the build-up to arrest Kanu. They went after IPOB’s top lawyer, Ejiofor, in the first week of June, as part of the plan to extract top information about Kanu. It has always been about arresting Kanu all along,” another source added.
“You recall that the President commanded the security chiefs and IGP to adopt certain security measures in the South-East and the South-South zones. These were some of the measures. The IGP was to take the lead and the president directed that he should be given support by all other security arms,” another source volunteered.
“The Twitter ban was also to bring a large gap between Kanu, mostly active on Twitter, and his vast followers in Nigeria, especially in the South-East.”
The source added that, "He was not arrested in London or anywhere in the United Kingdom. Diplomats confirmed that Kanu was picked up somewhere in Africa. The family and IPOB are very unhappy. Apparently, they have known about the trailing arrest for about some time,” a top source had stated.
Speaking in Umuahia, the Abia state capital, Nnamdi Kanu's younger brother, Emmanuel Kanu had said the IPOB leader stood on the path of truth and committed no crime to deserve any persecution.
According to him, Nnamdi was only asking for the freedom of Biafrans which is their fundamental human right hence, his rights should be respected.
He said the whole world is watching how the Nigerian Government will handle Kanu.
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