The Igbo Elders Consultative Forum has called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to release the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, as a fitting and final tribute to the late former President Muhammadu Buhari.

Reacting to Buhari’s death, the elders expressed condolences but said that for the South East, the former President’s legacy was marked by exclusion, injustice, and the controversial handling of Kanu’s case.

Secretary General of the Forum, Prof. Charles Nwekeaku, made the call in a telephone interview with The Guardian on Tuesday.

He described the continued detention of Kanu despite court judgments discharging him as a symbol of unresolved grievances in the region.

Kanu was first arrested in October 2015 under the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari. He was accused of treasonable felony and other offences related to his campaign for the secession of the South East under the proposed state of Biafra.

His arrest led to protests across the Southeast.

Kanu was granted bail in April 2017 on health grounds, but in September 2017, security forces stormed his home in Afara-Ukwu, Umuahia, Abia State. Following that raid, Kanu fled Nigeria, prompting the court to revoke his bail.

However, the most controversial phase of his arrest occurred in June 2021, when the Nigerian government announced that it had intercepted Kanu and brought him back to Nigeria.

Though the Federal Government initially gave no details, it later emerged that Kanu had been taken from Kenya under unclear legal circumstances, in what some human rights groups and lawyers described as an illegal rendition.

He was subsequently re-arraigned before Justice Binta Nyako of the Federal High Court in Abuja on a 15-count charge, including terrorism and incitement.

In October 2022, the Court of Appeal in Abuja struck out eight of the charges and ruled that the remaining seven could not be tried due to the illegality of his extradition. The court held that his extraordinary rendition from Kenya violated international and local laws and ordered his release.

However, the Federal Government has refused to release him and filed an appeal at the Supreme Court. In December 2023, the Supreme Court overturned the Appeal Court’s decision and ordered that Kanu should face trial on the remaining charges.

Nwekeaku said Buhari missed the opportunity to unite the country while alive, but that Tinubu could correct that by ordering Kanu’s release.

He noted that Kanu’s rendition from Kenya was declared illegal by both a Nigerian appellate court and a Kenyan high court.

He said: “Our elder, 93-year-old Chief Mbazulike Amaechi, first Republican minister, pleaded that Nnamdi Kanu should be released by the federal government as a birthday gift to him, but he was denied.

“As Christians, we are not happy that our former president died. He served Nigeria twice. Many times. First, as a Head of State, he later served as governor. He served as board chairman. He also served as chairman of the Petroleum Trust Fund and then came back and served as a civilian president.

“I think Nigerians have actually lost a great leader. May God grant his soul a rest. Although for those of us from the southeast, we know that under his administration, we were punished for no just cause.

“You can imagine, under his administration, the federal government took a $22.7 billion foreign loan for a rail line in the country, and the Southeast was excluded from that project. We know that in many appointments, Southeast was excluded.”