Denge Onoh, the former South-East campaign spokesman for President Bola Tinubu, has made a public plea to the President for the unconditional release of Nnamdi Kanu, the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), and the removal of Sunday Adeyemo, also known as Sunday Igboho, from the list of wanted individuals.
In a statement released on Friday, Onoh argued that the federal government’s policy appears to favor reconciliation with notorious criminals while aggressively prosecuting political agitators. He highlighted recent “peace deals” with bandit kingpins, including Isiya Garwa, who is one of Nigeria’s 19 most-wanted terrorists, as a grave miscarriage of justice.
According to Onoh, the government’s actions undermine the rule of law and embolden criminals. He lamented the escalating security crisis in the country, citing a report that bandits and insurgents killed at least 2,266 Nigerians in the first half of 2025 alone.
Onoh drew a stark contrast between the actions of Kanu and Igboho, who he referred to as political agitators, and the mass murder and extortion carried out by bandits like Garwa. “The atrocities perpetrated by these bandits…dwarf any actions attributed to Kanu or Igboho,” he stated, arguing that their continued persecution is “disproportionate but hypocritical.”
He asserted that releasing Kanu and dropping charges against Igboho would be a powerful signal from the government that it “values equity over expediency, dialogue over detention, and true security over selective impunity.” Onoh warned that a failure to address these issues would perpetuate division and undermine the government’s legitimacy, stating, “Let this be the turning point where justice unites us, not divides.”
