Sowore, who said this on Monday while addressing journalists after attending the hearing of Kanu’s bail application at the Federal High Court, Abuja, said that the Nigerian government was trying to join illegality with legality in the IPOB leader’s case, stressing that Kanu never committed any offence and that the process of bringing him back from Kenya was illegal and the illegality was upheld by the court of appeal in its judgment in 2023.
Human rights activist and #RevolutionNow convener, Omoyele Sowore, has said that he is supporting the fight and call for the freedom of the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, because Nigerian leaders unit to unjustly deal with the rest of the citizens and injustice in Nigeria has no ethnic colour.
Sowore, who said this on Monday while addressing journalists after attending the hearing of Kanu’s bail application at the Federal High Court, Abuja, said that the Nigerian government was trying to join illegality with legality in the IPOB leader’s case, stressing that Kanu never committed any offence and that the process of bringing him back from Kenya was illegal and the illegality was upheld by the court of appeal in its judgment in 2023.
The African Action Congress (AAC) former presidential candidate said, "All of us are human beings before we are Igbos, Hausas and Yorubas. Sometimes we even change our citizenship, some become Americans or Britons.
“It doesn’t matter where you are coming from. The colour of injustice is one. All of us have the same blood running through our veins. We just have a difference in our tongues. By the way, who told you that I’m not Igbo?
“The fact that I’m not Igbo doesn’t mean that I cannot fight for Igbo when an injustice is done to an Igbo; because when they are done with all the Igbos, they will come for the Yorubas. When they are done with Yorubas, they will go for the Ijaws and when they are done with all the big tribes, they will start coming for the small tribes.
“There is nobody in Nigeria who can say that his ethnicity protected him from hunger and starvation. None. We are all going to the same market. We are suffering the same way. We are collecting the same salary and we are living in this hell-hole known as Nigeria. So, being an Igbo doesn’t insulate you from suffering and injustice. Being an Igbo just subject you to more of it because Nigeria doesn’t believe that an Igbo man deserves justice.”
Sowore further said, “It has also happened to me before. I met Dasuki in detention. He is Hausa/Fulani. When it comes to injustice, the leaders of Nigeria are united against the rest of us. They use our ethnicity to divide us. They would say he is an Igbo and that is why they are dealing with him. Why did they deal with me? Am I Igbo? Or is it because they suspect maybe I have Igbo blood in me because my brother is married to an Igbo woman?”
The human rights activist maintained that “Nnamdi Kanu was brought to Nigeria illegally. He was abducted or in a better word, kidnapped and put on a plane. The Kenyan government even said they did not know how he was arrested in Kenya.
“The process of bringing him to court was illegal. You cannot rectify the illegality with another illegality which is bringing him before a court and trying him for an offence that he has not committed.
“Let us even look at their own legal system. From the court of first instance, where he was first brought, the court of appeal in its judgment said that Kanu committed no offence. A week later, they went and did their wuruwuru (irregularities) and stayed the judgment because they are afraid of themselves, they couldn’t speak the truth, otherwise, they could have quashed the charges at that level.
“If you are bringing him to court and you have said that he did not jump bail, which is what the Supreme Court said. Because somebody who is living in his house quietly, respecting the law and you went and invaded the place and he escaped barely by whiskers cannot be said to have jumped bail.
“If he didn’t jump bail, he did not even need another application for a new bail. The court was supposed to restore his bail that he was enjoying before the Nigerian Army went and violently violated his bail conditions.”
SaharaReporters earlier reported that a Federal High Court in Abuja fixed March 19, 2024, to rule on Kanu’s fresh bail application.
Kanu on Monday moved a fresh application for his bail in the treasonable felony charges filed against him by the Nigerian Government.
Kanu’s counsel, Aloy Ejimakor argued that the IPOB leader should be granted bail because of his ill health.
But the prosecuting team led by Adegboyega Awomolo (SAN), who replaced David Kaswe, a lawyer with the Federal Ministry of Justice, urged the court to dismiss the bail application.
Awomolo argued that the Department of State Services (DSS) has the medical facilities required to take care of the IPOB leader.
The judge subsequently adjourned ruling on the bail application to March 19, 2024.