Anambra State governor, Prof. Charles Soludo has again appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to release Mazi Nnamdi Kanu before exiting office on Monday.
Kanu, who is the leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPoB), was first arrested in 2015 but was granted bail two years later.
He jumped bail and fled abroad, but was re-arrested in Kenya and brought back to Nigeria in June 2021.
In his letter to the President, Soludo said that the continued detention of the IPoB leader has continued to affect residents of the South East who are forced to observe a sit-at-home order on Mondays out of fear.
Soludo expressed surprise that despite a call by the United Nations Human Rights Council for the release of the IPoB leader and court rulings granting freedom to him, the Federal Government has not released him.
According to Soludo, Kanu was reported to be “gravely ill” with life-threatening conditions which he listed to include serious heart condition, hypertension and low potassium levels.
The governor stressed that the medical conditions require specialist medical care and interventions which are not available at the Department of State Services facility he is being detained.
The letter reads: “In the light of the foregoing, it is my earnest prayer that Mr President may kindly consider the immediate and unconditional release of Kanu as demanded by the United Nations Human Rights Council and the Federal High Court.
“This will be the right thing to do as a country that should extol the principle of the rule of law in compliance with the international law and conventions that Nigeria is signatory to”.
The governor urged the President to consider granting Kanu an “administrative bail on compassionate grounds and as part of national healing” if there were persisting grounds that would make his unconditional release “untenable.”
“In this circumstance, I am prepared to take him (Kanu) on bail. My government is prepared to provide him with alternative secured accommodation at Awka where he will have access to appropriate medical care, among others, and make him available when required”, he assured.
