Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) says Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the banned Indigenous People of Biafra, should defend himself in court for spreading false information about his regime while he was abroad.

This was stated by Buhari in an interview broadcast on Channels Television on Wednesday night.

It had been previously reported that a delegation of respected Igbo elders, led by the First Republic’s Minister of Aviation, Chief Mbazulike Amaechi, had paid a visit to President Buhari in Aso Rock and asked for the unconditional release of the detained secessionist leader.

Buhari told them during the visit on November 19, 2021, that he would not want to interfere in the running of the judiciary, but that he would consider their request, despite it being “a heavy one.”

However, during a television interview on Wednesday night, Buhari said, “There is one institution that I wouldn’t interfere with, that is the judiciary, Kanu’s case is with the judiciary but what I wonder is when Kanu was safely in Europe, abusing this administration and mentioning too many things, I thought he wants to come and defend himself on the accusations.

“So, we are giving him an opportunity to defend himself in our system, not to be abusing us from Europe as if he was not a Nigerian. Let him come here with us and then criticize us here. Nigerians know that I don’t interfere with the judiciary, let him be listened to. But those who are saying that he should be released, no, we cannot release him.”

Buhari responded when asked about the possibility of a political solution saying, “There is a possibility of political solution. If people behave themselves, all well and good but you can’t go to a foreign country and keep on sending incorrect economic and security problems (sic) against our country and thinking that you would not account for what you have been doing. Let him (Kanu) account for what he has been doing.”