THISDAY

Family Links Kanu's Continued Detention to Alleged N800m FG Spent on His Court Case

- Emmanuel Ugwu-Nwogo

Family of the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, weekend, said it suspected that the continued detention of their son was not unconnecte­d to the N800 million the federal government has continued to spend each time the IPOB leader appeared in court.

Given a new dimension to federal government's refusal to free Kanu, spokesman of the family, Emmanuel Kanu, said the family was aware of claims that the FG spends that much for each of Kanu's appearance in court.

The huge amount was said to involve provision of logistics, including adequate security around the movement of the IPOB leader from DSS facility to the court and back.

Emmanuel noted that with the amount of money alleged to be involved, Kanu's detention has become a lucrative business for "a cabal in government" hence the difficulty being encountere­d in securing his release.

"Mazi Nnamdi Kanu has finally become a money-minting venture for a few corrupt individual­s in the corridors of power," adding that, "government should tell the people who collects and spends the money, and on what.

"Our fear is that if it's true that such humongous amount of money were spent on bringing him to court any time he is to appear, then it may be impossible to grant him bail any time soon," he said.

This, according to him, is "because the cabal benefiting from his continued incarcerat­ion may not be willing to let go of their oil well."

Meanwhile, the family has raised fresh concern over the IPOB leader's health issues, saying he needed urgent medical attention to avert a looming health crisis.

"We got informatio­n this morning that he is critically down. He has not been granted access to his personal doctors, and he urgently needs cardiologi­st. He should not be allowed to die in DSS custody," the family spokesman lamented.

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