President Muhammadu Buhari has said the leader of the Independent People of Biafra and Director, Radio Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu, sneaked into Nigeria from the United Kingdom without any passport and with sophisticated equipment for his radio station.
The President said this while fielding questions from journalists during his maiden Presidential Media Chat on Wednesday.
Asked why the Department of State Security had continued to detain some people, including form National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki, and Kanu despite the fact that courts had granted them bail more than once, Buhari suggested that they could jump bail.
He said, “You can see the type of atrocities that those people committed against soldiers of the Republic, against the country. They could jump bail.
“The former President just wrote to the governor Central Bank and said give N40bn naira to so, so, so… and then you ask him to go and see his doctor in London, while you have two million people in IDP (internally displaced person) camps, half of them do not even know their parents. Which type of country do you want to run.
“And the one you are calling Kanu, do you know he has two passports – one Nigerian, one British – and he came into this country without any passport? Do you know he came into this country with sophisticated equipment and was broadcasting for Radio Biafra?”
Kanu’s arrest and detention has sparked increased agitation for Biafra with supporters of his cause staging protests across states in the South-East as well as in Abuja and Lagos.
A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja had on December 17 ordered his unconditional release, resulting in wild jubilation by his supporters.
However, the Federal Government filed six fresh charges – of treason and other ancillary offences against him.
The government also said it had discovered that the transmitters for Radio Biafra, which Kanu was accused of using to spread secessionist agenda and campaigning for the carving out of a Biafra Republic from Nigeria, were found to be installed on MTN masts in Enugu and Anambra states.
According to the Federal Government, the installation of the transmitters on the telecommunications company’s masts was to ensure wider coverage for the radio.
During the media chat, Buhari also faulted the agitation for Biafra, insisting that all regions were represented in his administration.
He said, “Help me define the extent of marginalisation. Who is marginalising them? Why? How? Do you know? … The constitution said there must be a minister from each state. Who is the Minister of Petroleum? Is he not Igbo? Who is the Governor of Central Bank? Is he not Igbo? Who is the Minister of Labour? Who is the Minister of Science and Technology? Who is the junior minister of education?”
