Former Senate Minority Leader, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, has lamented the conviction and life sentence handed to the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, describing the verdict as the culmination of a long-standing plot that many within the South East had foreseen.

In a statement issued in Abuja by his media adviser, Uchenna Awom, Abaribe said the judgment did not come as a shock to the Igbo nation and “other right-thinking Nigerians,” noting that the Federal Government’s earlier refusal to consider calls for amnesty for Kanu signalled the direction events would eventually take.

According to him, the moment the Abuja court declined to extend to Kanu the same conciliatory gestures previously offered to other armed groups, it became clear that “today’s outcome was imminent.”

He queried what he described as a double standard in the administration of justice in Nigeria, pointing to negotiations and peace deals initiated with terror groups in the North East and North West, as well as the amnesty and subsequent reward schemes granted to former militants in the South South.

“Is it not an irony,” Abaribe asked, “that negotiations and peace deals with rampaging terrorists were gleefully initiated by local, state and federal authorities, just like the amnesty granted to ex-militants who were later rewarded with lucrative oil pipeline contracts?

“That is to say that justice in Nigeria is not for the South East.”

The Abia South senator said leaders from the region had consistently urged caution and pressed the government to consider a pardon for Kanu as a gesture of unity and inclusion, but their appeals were ignored.

“So, we are not surprised. Our people can only endure and hope for a time when justice in Nigeria would become the sine qua non.

We have done our best; we have variously made the case for circumspection and for a political solution,” he stated.
Abaribe, however, stressed that despite the disappointment surrounding the judgment, the South East must remain calm, adding that the region now looks to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for a fair resolution.

“The Igbo nation is now left with no other option than to place her fate squarely on the desk of President Tinubu.
“We must remain calm and pray. May Nigeria succeed, thrive and advance in justice, equity and fairness.”

Justice James Omotosho of the Federal High Court sentenced Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) to life imprisonment after ten years of trial.

Justice Omotosho delivered the judgment on Thursday, four years after Kanu was arrested in Kenya under contentious circumstances and brought back to Nigeria.