The wife of Nnamdi Kanu,the leader of Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) Uchechi Kanu, has said they won’t vote in the coming general election if the whereabouts of his husband is not made known by the Nigerian authorities.
Kanu stated this in an interview with British Broadcasting Cooperation (BBC).
Her husband’s home which also houses his parents alongside other members of the family was raided by soldiers of the Nigerian Army during a military operation in September 2017 and since then the IPOB leader has not been seen again publicly.
His secessionist group, IPOB, was proscribed a terrorist group by the Federal Government, and this has been confirmed in the court of law.
He was released on bail in April 2017 with three sureties before his disappearance and the court has mandated his sureties to either produce him or face the consequences of their action.
Kanu lawyers, led by one Mr. Ifeanyi Ejiofor, had told the court that they have not seen or heard from their client since September 14, 2017, when the Nigerian Army invaded his house “on a murderous raid, where life and mortar bullets were fired on unarmed and defenceless populace, leaving 28 persons dead and abducting many” asking the Army to produce his client.
But the Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Tukur Buratai, in a counter-affidavit he filed in opposition to the suit, told the court that Kanu was never in custody of the Nigeria Army.
Delivering judgement, the court exonerated the Army saying no evidence was placed before the court to prove that Kanu was in Army custody, adding that Ejiofor failed to convince the court that Kanu was seen with soldiers at any time.
“The doctrine of last seen”, which the applicant relied upon, eventhough applicable in murder cases, has no statutory backing,” it held.
Mrs Kanu said the Nigerian government must tell the world where her husband is as they were the last contact with him.
“He was trapped in the house when they went to invade the house and that was when he called me. He said can you hear the gun shots? I panicked and I started screaming ‘what’s going on?’ and he said to me, the military men are here. They are shooting.
“Nnamdi Kanu’s issue should be the number one thing. Where is he? You need to provide him or at least tell us where he is. You need to at least do something before you run an election, otherwise we are not going to vote,” she said.
As at press time, HEADLINE is yet to get clarification if the ‘we’ she meant has the South-East inclusive given the fact that that was how her husband puts it when he urged the Igbo residents in Anambra not to vote during the state governorship election last year.
On why his husband kept his family in the safety of Britain and expected other people to die for a cause he could not bring his family in to fight for, Mrs. Kanu said such statements were insensitive, adding that the family has been the worst hit since he disappeared.
“Do they even know what I go through? I can’t even explain,” she said, adding that Mr. Kanu’s immediate family is homeless and suffering too.
“Is that not sacrifice?” she said, adding that such insinuation could only be made by those she called “Typical stupid African person”.
She also disagreed that what her husband was venturing into was illegal. “How was it illegal?
“Why should it be treasonous? One asking for self-determination, how is that a crime?” She asked.
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