President Muhammadu Buhari has tactically rejected the request of southeast leaders to pardon separatist agitator, Nnamdi Kanu.
In response to the request on Friday at Umuahia as he concluded his two-day working visit to Ebonyi State, President Buhari said the court should be allowed to decide the fate of the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).
As they had repeatedly done, Ohanaeze Ndigbo and other leaders in the region appealed to the President to weigh in in Kanu’s court case when he met them at the Government House, Abakaliki.
At Friday’s meeting, Charles Mkpuma, Chairman of the Southeast Traditional Rulers, repeated the plea.
But Buhari said it was important that the court made a pronouncement on Kanu’s case.
Kanu is standing trial on an amended 15-count charge bordering on treasonable felony.
In April, a Federal High Court in Abuja struck out eight out of the 15-count charge filed against the IPOB leader.
Kanu’s lead counsel, Chief Mike Ozekhome SAN described the charges as “defective and baseless”.
