Kanu Conviction: Federal Govt, Allies Setting Deadly Trap for Ndigbo – Obidigbo

By Praise Chinecherem

Elder statesman, Dr. Chike Obidigbo has decried the draconian life sentence slammed on the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, saying that it’s the height of continuing insensitivity and injustice against Ndigbo

He regretted that the political undertones of the IPOB leader’s trial was allowed to take the shape and tone of terrorism, stressing that the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu-led federal government has set yet another trap for the Igbo and South East geo-political zone.

This re-awakens in me the memories of the British-engineered trap that led to the Biafran secession and then deadly civil war that lasted for three years, and in which nearly five million Biafra lives were wasted in what has been the worst genocide only second to that of the six million Jews murdered by the Nazi Germany!

With all the pains, humiliations, marginalization and the punishments the Igbo has to put up with since the end of the civil strife in 1970, it appears to the Igbo haters that include the British, French, Fulani North and now the Yoruba West with their political accomplices in Igboland that Igbo may be rising up again after all, from the ashes of the past destruction and evil designs against them. To them, another trap should be set, to stop the Igbo in their track one more time.

Obidigbo who wondered whether the sentencing of Kanu was actually the decision of the presiding Justice James Omotosho of the Federal High Court, noted that right from the time Justice Binta Nyako recused herself from the trial, it became obvious that the government with her covert allies was determined to have its way, in whatever direction so long as it will hurt badly and provoke the Igbo one more time.

Traducers know that it’s not Nnamdi Kanu that they are after. They are after the soul of the Igbo nation. And they dare the Igbo to react so that another and probably a final genocide will be rained upon them.

They have looked and saw no help coming for the Igbo should they be attacked again. Igbo are not Arabs so they will not have Arab League alliance for support. Igbo are not Muslims so Muslims the world over will not come to their rescue.

“They have no international media like Aljazeera and other powerful Islamic media organizations that will give them cover against the invasion of the enemies of Igboland.

They have no powerful external allies to back them up. The colonial masters who now pretend to be Christians are actually the ones engineering the suppression of the Igbo, because they view the Igbo as their main obstacles to access to Africa’s limitless resources, freely made available to them by their installed political and economic puppets across Africa. Moreover, they are under the misguided illusion that an independent Biafra could join forces with the contemporary Gen Z African leadership.

Narrating what he called a steady assault on Igbo, the statesman stated: “although the persecution of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu was initiated by the late President Muhammadu Buhari, the Tinubu administration inherited the very sensitive matter which bordered on protest against marginalization of the South East by the federal government.

But even when it was clear to all that Buhari hated Igbo with bitter passion, the extraordinary rendition or plainly put, the kidnapping of Kanu at the end of Buhar’s administration left the impression that the state was not inclined to pursue justice according to the rule of law, but a combination of the tradition of ethnic hatred against Igbo.

Upon assuming office as President, Tinubu decided to continue from where Buhari stopped to marginalize the South East by unleashing natural hate, even with greater venom. It’s noteworthy that the President has clearly not forgiven Igbo for his defeat in Lagos state by Peter Obi during the 2023 presidential election.

This narrative gained credence not only by the massive and mindless destruction of Igbo property in Lagos, but most especially in the draconian sentencing of Kanu by Justice Omotosho. The judgement came more as the voice of Jacob, instead of Esau, based on information reaching us.

One was that the Judge was reading the judgement from a phone, as delivered message, implying that the judgement may have been prepared elsewhere, possibly at the presidency and forwarded to the Judge by phone. Two is the expose by the 2023 presidential candidate of African Action Congress (AAC), Comrade Omoleye Sowore, on November 5, 2025.

He recalled how Sowore had in a post on his X (formerly Twitter) handle alerted Nigerians that a secret decision had long reached with Tinubu Presidency to either sentence Kanu to death or condemn him to life imprisonment.

Going by Sowore’s exposure there is no doubt that the Tinubu Presidency and her allies decided to set yet another trap for Ndigbo with the bogus life imprisonment of Kanu as a ploy to lure the Igbo into destructive protest, or a political bargain for the 2027 election, and ending the agitation for Biafra by Igbo youths.

“No doubt, the life imprisonment slammed on Kanu may have been orchestrated to provide the president an opportunity to intervene and try to give conditions for Kanu’s release. As an elder statesman that knows some history about Nigeria and the Igbo agitation for equity, justice and fair play, I am inclined to say that this gamble is dead on arrival as it is bound to fail. Tinubu has the fairest opportunity to unite, strengthen and prosper Nigeria. And he personally told me, in 2017 during a private visit that above were his heart’s desire.

But then he failed to live up to it now that the ball is right inside his own court. Many eminent Igbo sons including Mbazulike Amaechi, Prof. Ben Nwabueze, George Obiozor had pleaded with Tinubu to give the IPOB agitation a political solution, to no avail. The seasoned advice of Igbo leaders including our own dear Zik, Okpara, Ojukwu for a handshake across the Niger fell on deaf ears, once the table turned in favour of the South West.

Tinubu and his advisers probably waited to make maximum impact with the trial of Nnamdi Kanu and achieve a political goal. It has been clear as crystal clear that some political and business leaders across Nigeria do not want Igbo in the scheme of things in the country for obvious reasons, which will include fear of domination and inability to compete at the same level. It’s equally crystal clear that some putrid Igbo politicians with greed and slavish mentality, and who will never reason along mainstream Igbo, will prefer to hang unto the status quo in order to maintain their servile status so long as they latch into power and money, both of which will never remain their only source of relevance within the corridors of Igbo achievers.

“Above narratives will forever remain the imperative of Omotosho’s life sentence of Nnamdi Kanu” Obidigbo declared.

Transferring Kanu to Sokoto again is to maximize the impact of the humiliation on the Igbo intended to dare them to act spontaneously as they have always been known to do, or to swallow the insult and bury their heads in shame. Obidigbo disclosed that when placed side by side with the twenty years sentence to the leader of the deadly ISWAP, Hussain Ismaila, the life sentence on Kanu, which derived from the dubious proscription of unarmed IPOB as a terrorist organization, shows that the war on the Igbo is still going on.

He stated: at any event President Tinubu has put it on record that he surpasses Buhari in his hatred for anything Igbo. If the President does not believe in one Nigeria, his actions in office including the latest incarceration of the Igbo soul, shows that he’s not really interested in building an equitable and secure Nigeria.

To me, Nigeria is carefully packaged fraud by Britain and I believe that Nigeria has outlived its usefulness, particularly for all the indigenous people, who should now be allowed to go and sort out their respective destinies. This is where President Donald Trump will be of greatest help to the people of Nigeria as a whole. This is why all Igbo should remain calm in the face of this horrible provocation but allow God and time to sort things out.

It’s very agonizing that at this time when established terrorists are massacring, wiping out, and occupying other people’s villages, ambushing, attacking and killing our soldiers, and security officials including military generals, what will be more to the government of Nigeria will be to seek to outlaw dissents and curb mere agitation for referendum through a maximum sentence. Shame!

Dame Patience Goodluck will say, and I agree with her that “there is God, watching over all of us, including but not limited to our dear Ahmed and James.” And that God will not allow anything happen to Mazi Nnamdi Kanu under their watch.