Lawyer Aloy Ejimakor has warned President Bola Tinubu and politicians in the Southeast that they risk ruining their chances in the 2027 general elections if his client, Nnamdi Kanu, is not freed from prison.
Kanu, who leads the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), is currently serving a life sentence after facing trial for terrorism and treasonable felony.
In a post on X, Ejimakor wrote, “Southeast politicians, aspiring to contest the 2027 elections should bear this in mind: If MAZI NNAMDI KANU is not freed in the near term, it will ruin your chances in the 2027 elections. Don’t ask me how.
“The same fate awaits President Tinubu, because SE will remember.”
Recently, Ejimakor stated that the proscription of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) as a terrorist group in 2017 was never about genuine national security but a politically motivated tool to suppress legitimate political dissent by the Igbo people and criminalise an entire ethnic group’s political expression.
In an opinion piece, Ejimakor revealed that International bodies, Nigerian courts, and even the US and UK have repeatedly flagged the terror tag on IPOB as disproportionate, unlawful, and discriminatory.
He recalled that on October 1, 2020, multiple UN Special Rapporteurs sent an official communication to the Nigerian government urging it to “reconsider the proscription of IPOB as a terrorist group” and explicitly warned that “proscription should not be used as a means to quell legitimate political opinion and expression, nor to prevent individuals from exercising their rights of peaceful assembly and of association.”
The rapporteurs stated further that: “We are concerned that these growing restrictions… may [reflect] a growing climate of intolerance towards the Igbo and Christian minorities…”
Ejimakor stated that this was not abstract criticism but built on earlier findings by former Special Rapporteur Agnes Callamard (end-of-visit statement, 2nd September 2019).
He said that in Opinion No. 25/2022 (published July 2022), the UN Human Rights Council examined the case of IPOB leader Mazi Nnamdi Kanu. It declared his detention arbitrary, citing his rendition as tied directly to his leadership of IPOB.
The UN Council demanded his unconditional release and compensation, underscoring that criminalising membership in IPOB violates international standards on freedom of association and expression.
The Guardian
