President Muhammadu Buhari will consider the interest of over 200 million Nigerians before granting the Igbo elders’ request for the release of the leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu.
Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN), disclosed this during the NTA’s Good Morning Nigeria Show on Tuesday.
Malami was reacting to the request made by some Igbo elders led by the Minister of Aviation in the First Republic, Chief Mbazulike Amaechi, who visited Buhari in Aso Rock on November 19, 2021.
The elders requested the unconditional release of the detained IPOB leader.
Kanu was first arrested in 2017 for demanding the secession of the Southeast zone from Nigeria. He was arraigned and granted bail. He, however, jumped bail and fled the country. On June 29, 2021, Malami revealed that the IPOB leader was re-arrested in a foreign country. He is now facing terrorsim-related charges.
Buhari, however, told the elders that he would not want to interfere in the running of the judiciary but said he would consider their demand though “a heavy one.”
On November 10, 2021, Malami said a political solution cannot be ruled out to resolve the crisis surrounding separatist agitations in Nigeria but later made a u-turn and said the option is not on the table yet.
During the NTA interview, Malami said Buhari would consider the interest of over 200 million Nigerians before he takes any decision.
He said the President considered public interest as against the interest of sectional groups when he refused to assent to the Electoral Amendment Bill.
The Minister said, “By way of general statements to the two issues presented: the issue relating to the electoral bill and the issue relating to Kanu and by extension, IPOB, what I can tell you for certain is that the decision of the President is based fundamentally and at all times on public interest consideration.
“In the art of governance, what I have come to learn about the mind and heart of the President, Muhammadu Buhari, is to consider the 200 million as against the limited people.
“By extension, the issue of Kanu, what would as well govern the decision of the President in terms of whatever request is presented is the public interest as against limited sectional interest of it.”
