Presidency Breaks Silence On Kanu’s Arrest, Labels Igboho ‘Militant Ethnic Secessionist’

Eight days after Nigeria’s Attorney-General and Minister of Justice announced the arrest and extradition of Nnamdi Kanu, the Presidency has issued a statement on the IPOB leader’s apprehension. 

AGF Abubakar Malami had on June 29 announced that Kanu, who fled the country in 2017 while facing treason charges, had been rearrested and extradited to the country. 

The justice minister was, however, silent on where Kanu was arrested and the international security agencies involved in the arrest and extradition. 

Malami had said that Kanu was rearrested on allegations that he had instigated violence and the killing of security officers in the South East region. 

IPOB, a separatist group proscribed and designated a terrorist organisation by the Nigerian government, is also believed to be sponsoring arson attacks on government institutions in the region through its paramilitary wing known as the Eastern Security Network (ESN). 

The Presidency, in a statement by President Muhammadu Buhari’s senior media assistant, Garba Shehu, reacted to the IPOB leader’s arrest for the first time on Tuesday (today). 

While commending Nigerian law enforcement agencies for arresting Kanu, the Presidency was similarly mute on the foreign security agencies the government engaged to secure the IPOB leader’s arrest and deportation. 

While information in some quarters claim that Kanu was arrested in Kenya, the Kenyan High Commissioner to Nigeria had denied his country’s involvement in the IPOB leader’s arrest and extradition. 

Meanwhile, Shehu hailed the “enhanced collaboration” and “great synchronization” with which the country’s law enforcement agencies arrested Kanu. 

He said, “The subversive leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) a group known for its murderous actions and virulent messaging was detained as a result of cross-border cooperation.  This international operation was executed in a closely coordinated fashion following which he was handed over to our National Intelligence Agency, and then returned to Nigeria to face the Law.”

Shehu alleged that IPOB’s activities had, “led to hundreds of fatalities, particularly targeted at Government assets and Law Enforcement Agents.  Additionally, there have been  at last count, fifty (55) separate violent attacks, heavily concentrated in the South-East, which heaped further hardship on our honest and hardworking citizens, preventing them from earning their livelihood and going about their normal lives.

“The Government had long been monitoring the activities of IPOB and had strong cause to believe that their funding sources include proceeds of suspected illicit criminal activities. By this singular action of our Security Forces, sanity, calm and peace has been returned to our communities who previously lived in constant fear of these misguided elements.”

The Presidency also spoke for the first time on the recent midnight raid on the residence of a South West activist, Sunday Igboho.

Shehu described Igboho as a “militant ethnic secessionist” who he said “has also been conducting acts of terror and disturbing the peace under the guise of protecting fellow “kinsmen”.” 

The presidential aide added, “His seditious utterances and antics, which he is known to have publicly expressed, have overtime morphed into very hateful and vile laden speeches.  It must be highlighted that the government respects fundamental rights of citizens to express their views and recognizes this as a democratic tenet.  However, any attempt to build an Armoury coupled with plans either subtle or expressed to undermine our unity as a nation will not be condoned.

“Mr. President’s directives to Security Services regarding anyone seen to be carrying arms, particularly AK-47 are clear and require no further illumination.  Assault weapons are not tools of peace loving people and as such, regardless of who they are and where they are from, the Security Agencies should treat them all the same.

“The successes of our Security Agencies must be commended as they have demonstrated significant deftness, guile and secrecy in carrying out these missions.  This level of professionalism must be sustained and brought to bear as we focus on extracting from our society those who have found a new trade in targeting students, rural dwellers and our citizens in the North-West.  The nation recognizes their efforts and sacrifice.”