Asari Dokubo, a Niger Delta activist, says releasing Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) will amount to “rewarding criminality,” as he supported the EndSARS protests. 

“His release would fuel impunity; during EndSARS, Nnamdi Kanu was walking free. What did he do? He poured petrol on the flames of EndSARS. Now, he has been caught. What of the people who have died? This is a criminal. He should face the law,” Mr Dokubo said.

“Releasing Nnamdi Kanu is rewarding criminality and rewarding gruesome murder of innocent people. He should face the law for the actions and instigations he has carried out,” he added.

The ex-militant made this statement while speaking with journalists when he visited President Bola Tinubu at the Presidential Villa on Friday.

Mr Kanu has remained in illegal detention despite court orders discharging and acquitting him after he was abducted by the President Muhammadu Buhari regime in Kenya and smuggled into Nigeria in 2021.

Contrary to Mr Dokubo’s claim that Mr Kanu fuelled #EndSARS, the historic nationwide protests against police brutality and extra judicial killings perpetrated by the Special Anti-Robbery Squad of the Nigerian police, was championed by Nigerian youths.

The protests were destabilised as state sponsored thugs unleashed mayhem on protesters under supervision of the Nigerian police.

In October 2020, the Nigerian Army opened live rounds on protesting youths at Lekki Tollgate, killing many. 

A judicial panel set up by Lagos State to investigate the Lekki Massacre indicted the Nigerian Army for using force on protesters, recommending dismissal of officers who participated in the massacre and compensation of victims of the massacre. But the recommendations of the panel were ignored by both the Lagos State and the Buhari-led regime, denying the October 20, 2020 massacre.