Nigeria's Secret Police Grant Bail To Biafran Separatist Leader, Nnamdi Kanu

 

Nnamdi Kanu

 

Chiemelie Ezeobi


The Department of State Security (DSS) monday released the Director, Radio Biafra and Leader of Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB)  Nnamdi Kanu, who was arrested at the Golden Tulip Essential Hotel, Ikeja, Lagos.

 

Kanu, who was arrested on Friday last week, was said to have been released on bail to his lawyer.

 

Although the bail fee was reportedly fixed at N2 million, as at press time, Kanu was yet to have met the bail conditions, which included getting a civil servant on grade16 to be his surety.

 

According to reports, his lawyer, Mr. Egechukwu Obetta, had decried the fact that his client was arrested for airing his opinion on seccession.

 

Attempts to confirm his release from the DSS spokesperson at the Lagos State Command last night, proved abortive as his two phones were switched off.

 

However, THISDAY had earlier gathered that Kanu was arrested following an alleged threat-filled interview he granted recently.

A senior DSS official who asked not to be named, said Kanu was arrested based on the violent undertone of an interview he recently granted journalists.

 

He said: “Prior to his arrest, he was not under our radar. In fact, he did not exist. However, that was to change after our attention was drawn to the interview he granted one medium.

 

“In that interview, he made so many threats that would jeopardise the sovereignty of Nigeria if he is allowed to actualise them.

“He also threatened to burn down Nigeria if Biafra is not allowed to secede. The violent undertone of his interview gave us cause for concern and so we picked him up.”

 

THISDAY also gathered that some of the events that led to his eventual arrest were painstaking intelligence gathering and covert surveillance on Kanu.

 

According to the source, they had mounted surveillance on him and had alerted the necessary persons, thus making it easier for them to arrest him from where he lodged.

 

He said: “Before we arrested him, we did our homework. So when our intelligence network signalled that he was around, we simply waited and picked him up.”

 

He also said measures are ongoing to ferret out information about the sponsors of the group, in a bid to round them up.

He said: “After our questioning, we will go after their sponsors because it’s not possible for this young man to be the brain behind this group. When we get the sponsors, we have gotten the group.”

 

Also, another senior official who craved anonymity said: “The operation was carried out on a need-to-know basis. So not all operatives were in the know because we wanted a tight and smooth execution.

 

“After he was picked up, his girlfriend came to the command but he was not released to her. We kept him for questioning.

 

“Investigations are ongoing and we would not want to jeopardise it, but note that if he is innocent, he would be released after our questioning but if not, he would be made to face the law.”

 

Culled From THISDAY