Nnamdi Kanu: Presidency Fires as Peter Obi Kicks Against Court Judgment

The presidency has knocked Peter Obi, the 2027 presidential candidate of the Labour Party and former governor of Anambra state, over his condemnation of the judgment handed down to the estranged leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu.

Kanu was handed multiple sentences, including a life sentence, on Thursday, November 20, over the terror activities of the proscribed group in the southeast region by the Federal High Court in Abuja.

The presidency has condemned Peter Obi criticism of constitutional court judgment on Nnamdi Kanu. — President Bola Tinubu’s aide condemns Peter Obi’s criticism of the court judgment on Nnamdi Kanu
Photo Credit: @officialABAT, @PeterObi
Source: Twitter

Reacting to the judgment, Obi described the ruling as “unfortunate”, saying that the arrest, detention and conviction of Kanu were a failure of leadership in the country. He added that the government did not understand the issue at hand.

Speaking on Obi’s criticism of the constitutional court, Olusegun Dada, a special assistant to President Bola Tinubu on social media, described Obi’s claim as “a calculated attempt to politicise a national security issue.”

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The presidential aide accused the former governor of turning the conviction of Kanu into another political posturing. He recalled that Obi has not “openly condemned the killings, beheadings, arson, kidnappings, and terror carried out by IPOB and ESN.”

He noted how Obi has been “carefully silent” about the deadly activities of IPOB and kept mute on the “innocent people were murdered” in the southeast.

His statement reads:

“You had no comment when sit-at-home orders crippled economic life and cost lives. You consistently avoided the topic until now, when the judgment offers you a chance to score political points. Even in this long statement, you still refused to mention a single victim of IPOB’s violence. Not one. Instead, you paint Kanu as the aggrieved party, while erasing the pain of those whose lives his rhetoric helped destroy.”

The IPOB group and its security outfit, Eastern Security Network (ESN), have been responsible for several attacks in the five states of the southeast region, including prominent Nigerians, such as the husband of the late Dora Akunyili.