The Eze Ogbunechendo of Ezema Olo Kingdom in Enugu State, Lawrence Agubuzu, has appealed to President Bola Tinubu to set leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu free, or repatriate him to Kenya or London.
The monarch made the appeal, on Tuesday, while addressing audience at the 2026 National Traditional and Religious Leaders Summit on Health, held at the State House Conference Centre, Abuja.
Stating his discontent regarding a speech earlier made by the Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi, the Enugu-based traditional ruler expressed skepticism over the subject of unity in the country.
Mr Agubuzu stated that the Ooni of Ife’s call for unity was not a fair treatment.
He accused the Ooni of Ife of planning to confer a traditional honour on Yoruba Nation agitator, Sunday ‘Igboho’ Adeyemo, while his counterpart in the South-East was being incarcerated at a correctional centre in Sokoto.
“The Ooni of Ife was gingering all of us to work as a family as a team to see Nigeria as one. And then I felt maybe this is good,” Mr Agubuzu stated.
“This same Imperial Majesty is arranging to confer a very high honour on Sunday Igboho, who in my own part of Nigeria and the South-East, we see him as a counterpart of Nnamdi Kanu,”
“My brother, fellow Royal Majesty does not seem to understand the pain in my heart when Nnamdi Kanu is in Sokoto. So sir, the ball stops in your court,” the traditional ruler stated.
Appealing to Mr Tinubu who was at the event, Mr Agubuzu said youths in the South-East region remained agitated and often saw traditional rulers from the region as traitors.
“Bring this man out. If we don’t want him in Nigeria, return him to Kenya or London, where they took him from. Some of us here are being asked to go and work, but the young people in the South-East are being agitated,” he said.
“They can beat us. They see us as sellouts who come to Abuja to collect money and then keep quiet. So sir, do something about this. We cannot make progress in this country if we don’t tell ourselves the home truth. There is no way,” Mr Agubuzu noted.
Also, the Enugu-based monarch dissociated himself from the Southern Traditional Rulers Council, urging the federal government to share resources and deal directly with the representative leaders of the South-East region.
Mr Agubuzu stated, “The truth of the matter is that there is nothing like Southern Traditional Rulers Council. If you give money to people on that basis, it is not correct. The South is not the North. We have our system. If you want to deal with us, deal with us in the South-East. Democracy is a representative government.”
Responding to the monarch’s observation, the Ooni of Ife, who serves as the permanent chairman of the Southern Traditional Rulers Council, insisted that the council remained formidable and its membership optional.
“The Southern Traditional Rulers Council is very optional. You don’t need to join us if you don’t want to, but it is a force, a formidable force, among traditional institutions for us to come together. We are all reputable in our domains,” the Ooni said.
The Ooni stated that the council in its characteristics also remained united and inclusive, citing the participation of monarchs from the South-East as proof.
The monarch said, “We don’t want any impression that there’s division. We don’t want to take out the South-East. We have the Eze Aro here. He is one of our very prominent traditional rulers in the South-East. We have a lot of South-East traditional rulers working together for the betterment of the country.
“For us, it is something key to let the whole world know that if you don’t want to be part of us, you can opt out.”
In 2015, Mr Kanu was arrested for treasonable felony and later arraigned at the Federal High Court, Abuja Division, and granted bail two years later.
In June 2021, Mr Kanu was re-arrested and extradited to Nigeria from Kenya, an East African country, through the collaborative efforts of security operatives.
At the time, international observers and Mr Kanu’s legal team faulted the federal government for targeting and transferring him through an extrajudicial procedure.
At the Court of Appeal, Justice Nyako discharged Mr Kanu in 2022, invalidating all charges on the basis of the extraordinary acts by the inter-agency security operatives who had extradited him.
The federal government, however, appealed the ruling at the Supreme Court, which in turn ordered Mr Kanu to return to face trial at the Federal High Court.
Last November, an Abuja Division of the Federal High Court sentenced the IPOB leader to life imprisonment, with concurrent terms of five and 25 years, for terrorism and other sundry charges.
