South East Monarch Urges Tinubu To Free, Deport Nnamdi Kanu

A traditional ruler from the South-East, Dr Lawrence Agubuzu, on Tuesday appealed to President Bola Tinubu to release the convicted leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu, or return him to Kenya, where he was arrested, warning that his continued detention was fuelling agitation among youths in the region.

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Naija News reports that Agubuzu, the Eze Ogbunechendo of Ezema Olo Kingdom, made the appeal during the 2026 National Traditional and Religious Leaders Summit on Health held at the State House Conference Centre, Abuja.

Addressing the President directly during the goodwill message segment, the monarch said, “Bring this man out. If we don’t want him in Nigeria, return him to Kenya or London, where he was taken from.”

He said, “Please do something about this. We cannot make progress in this country if we don’t tell ourselves the truth.”

The summit, themed “The Role of Traditional and Religious Leaders in Advancing the Nigeria Health Sector Renewal Investment Initiative,” was convened to deepen community engagement in ongoing health sector reforms and featured the signing of a compact by traditional and religious leaders to champion healthcare delivery within their domains.

However, proceedings took a dramatic turn when Agubuzu pressed the President on Kanu’s fate.

“I must tell you, Mr President, that personally I don’t feel very happy because you were not here in the morning when the Ooni of Ife gave the opening remarks and was gingering us to work as one,” he said.

The Enugu-based monarch questioned the sincerity of calls for unity, alleging that the Ooni was arranging to confer a high traditional honour on Yoruba Nation activist Sunday Igboho, whom he described as Kanu’s counterpart in the South-West.

Agubuzu said, “This same Imperial Majesty is arranging to confer a very high honour on Sunday Igboho, who in my own part of Nigeria and the South-East, we see him as a counterpart of Nnamdi Kanu.

“The ball stops on your court. Bring this man out. If we don’t want him in Nigeria, return him to Kenya or London, where they took him from.”

He warned of rising restiveness among youths in the South-East, saying traditional rulers were being viewed with suspicion.

“Some of us here are being asked to go and work, but the young people in the South-East are so agitated they can even beat us.

“They see us as sell-outs. We come to Abuja; they may think we come to collect money and then we keep quiet,” he said.

Kanu’s Legal Battle

Kanu, 58, a British-Nigerian activist and founder of the proscribed IPOB, has been at the centre of a prolonged and politically sensitive legal battle.

He was first arrested in Lagos in October 2015 for treasonable felony and later granted bail in April 2017 by Justice Binta Nyako of the Federal High Court, Abuja.

Following a military raid on his Afaraukwu home in Umuahia during Operation Python Dance II in September 2017, Kanu fled the country. The Federal Government subsequently proscribed IPOB as a terrorist organisation.

In June 2021, the government announced his re-arrest and return to Nigeria from Kenya, a move his legal team described as an extraordinary rendition.

The Court of Appeal discharged him in October 2022, but the Supreme Court in December 2023 overturned the ruling and ordered him to face trial.

On November 20, 2025, Justice James Omotosho found Kanu guilty on seven terrorism-related counts and sentenced him to life imprisonment, alongside concurrent jail terms on other counts.

He was subsequently transferred to the Sokoto Correctional Centre. His lawyers have challenged the transfer and filed multiple grounds of appeal against his conviction.

Meanwhile, the Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof. Muhammad Ali Pate, described the summit as the first comprehensive engagement with traditional and religious leaders since the commencement of health sector reforms over two years ago.

The event featured goodwill messages from representatives of the World Health Organisation, the World Bank, and the Senate Committee on Health.

The First Lady, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, delivered the keynote address, urging traditional and religious leaders to support the rollout of the National Community Food Bank Programme scheduled to commence nationwide in April.

The summit concluded with the signing of a compact aimed at building awareness of the President’s health reform vision, strengthening transparency in healthcare delivery, and fostering community-level implementation of reforms.