Lawrence Agubuzu, Eze Ogbunechendo of Ezema Olo Kingdom in Enugu state, has asked President Bola Tinubu to release Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), or return him to Kenya, where he was arrested before being brought to Nigeria.
Agubuzu spoke on Tuesday while delivering a goodwill message
at the 2026 National Traditional and Religious Leaders Summit on Health held at
the State House Conference Centre in Abuja.
The traditional ruler said Kanu’s continued detention is
fuelling agitation among youths in the south-east.
“Bring this man out. If we don’t want him in Nigeria, return
him to Kenya or London, where they took him from,” he said.
“Please do something about this. We cannot make progress in
this country if we don’t tell ourselves the truth.”
Agubuzu added that he was unhappy Tinubu was absent when the
Ooni of Ife delivered the opening remarks at the summit.
“I must tell you, Mr President, that personally I don’t feel
very happy because you were not here in the morning when the Ooni of Ife gave
the opening remarks and was gingering us to work as one,” he said.
He accused the Ooni of hypocrisy, alleging that the monarch
plans to confer an honour on Sunday Igboho, the Yoruba nation agitator.
“This same Imperial Majesty is arranging to confer a very
high honour on Sunday Igboho, who, in my own part of Nigeria and the
South-East, we see him as a counterpart of Nnamdi Kanu,” Agubuzu charged.
“The ball stops on your court. Bring this man out. If we
don’t want him in Nigeria, return him to Kenya or London where they took him
from,” he insisted.
Agubuzu said traditional rulers in the south-east are facing
pressure from aggrieved youths over Kanu’s continued incarceration.
“Some of us here are being asked to go and work, but the
young people in the South-East are so agitated they can even beat us,” he said.
“They see us as sell-outs. We come to Abuja; they may think
we come to collect money and then we keep quiet.”
The IPOB leader was first arrested in 2015 on treason
charges and granted bail in 2017. He later fled the country but was rearrested
in Kenya in 2021 and returned to Nigeria.
His case has since gone through multiple rounds of
litigation, including proceedings at the court of appeal and the supreme court.
Kanu is currently serving a life sentence in Sokoto prison
following his conviction on a seven-count terrorism-related charge by a federal
high court in Abuja on November 20, 2025.
The federal government has proscribed IPOB as a terrorist
organisation.
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