Wabara says Atiku will release Nnamdi Kanu within 100 days of taking office as president

FORMER vice president and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate Alhaji Atiku Abubakar will release Indigenous People of Biafra (Ipob) leader Nnamdi Kanu if he gets elected according to one-time senate president Senator Adolphus Wabara.

On February 25, Nigerians go to the polls to elect a new president and Alhaji Abubakar is one of the frontrunners alongside former Lagos State governor Asiwaju Bola Tinubu of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), former Kano State governor Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso of the New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP) and ex-Anambra State governor Peter Obi of the Labour Party. Speaking in Umuahia, the Abia State capital, Senator Wabara said Mr Kanu would be released within the first 100 days of an Atiku administration.

Senator Wabara, 74, served as the 10th senate president between 2003 and 2005, representing the Abia South Senatorial District. According to Senator Wabara, who is the chairman of the PDP's board of trustees, the former vice president would help restore peace to Nigeria's southeast geo-political zone with the release of Mr Kanu.

He added: “Atiku has promised to release our son from prison within 100 days of his administration. He is not afraid of anybody and he will do what he has promised."

Highly controversial, Mr Kanu has been campaigning for the recreation of the independent republic of Biafra which broke away from Nigeria between July 1967 and January 1970 during the civil war. His campaign, which has led to the phenomenal growth of Ipob, has set him at odds with the Nigerian government who him arrested and put on trial for treason.

While the case was still pending, Mr Kanu was granted bail in April 2017 on health grounds but skipped his bail after flouting the conditions given to him by the court and fled Nigeria. In a dramatic development, in June 2021, Mr Kanu was abducted in Kenya and flown to Nigeria, where he has since been arrayed in court in Abuja, with fresh charges added to the pending ones.