A former Southeast spokesman for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Denge Josef Onoh, has urged the President to order the immediate and unconditional release of the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, and to remove Yoruba Nation agitator Sunday Adeyemo, popularly known as Sunday Igboho, from the criminal wanted list.

 

In a statement issued in Abuja on Thursday, Onoh said his appeal was driven by the need for fairness, national reconciliation and the restoration of public trust in Nigeria’s institutions, particularly amid rising threats to collective security.

 

Onoh expressed outrage over recent peace deals between some state governments and notorious bandit kingpins, citing the “peace agreement” accepted by Isiya Kwashen Garwa, listed among Nigeria’s 19 most-wanted terrorists, in Katsina State. He described the move as a grave miscarriage of justice and a violation of constitutional order.

 

“These deals, often disguised as community negotiations in Faskari and Batsari, have given impunity to criminals who have inflicted unimaginable horrors, while agitators such as Kanu remain in detention for non-violent self-determination advocacy,” Onoh said.

 

He noted that the arrangements, which saw bandits surrender only a handful of AK-47 rifles in exchange for de facto amnesty, contradict Section 33 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), which guarantees the right to life, and the Terrorism (Prevention) Act, which demands accountability for acts of terror.

“These actions undermine the rule of law, embolden criminality and erode the moral authority of the state,” he said, aligning with Senator Shehu Sani’s criticism of negotiating with those responsible for thousands of deaths.

 

Onoh argued that the differential treatment of northern bandits and southern agitators has created “systemic inequities,” portraying it as favoritism and political expediency.

“The atrocities committed by Garwa’s gang dwarf any actions attributed to Kanu or Igboho. Yet they face relentless persecution while terrorists are rewarded,” he said.

 

He detailed that Garwa’s gang was linked to the massacre of 34 worshippers in Katsina, relentless kidnappings across Katsina and Zamfara, and coordinated raids that left communities in perpetual fear. Between January and June 2025 alone, he noted, bandits and insurgents killed at least 2,266 Nigerians, surpassing the 2,194 deaths recorded in all of 2024.

 

Citing further data, Onoh said nearly 5,000 people were abducted between July 2024 and June 2025, with over ₦2.57 billion in ransoms paid, displacing millions and devastating 638 villages in Zamfara alone. Amnesty International’s investigations since 2020, he added, recorded over 294 killings and 306 abductions in Katsina, while Zamfara has seen 273 deaths and 467 kidnappings in just two years.

 

“These terrorist gangs block roads, rape women and girls, pillage resources and control gold mines to fund their armoury of over 60,000 illegal weapons. Their violence, marked by sexual atrocities, child abductions and the sacking of entire communities, has created ‘captive populations’ living under de facto bandit rule,” Onoh said.

 

He challenged the government to present evidence that Kanu or Igboho had committed crimes comparable to such atrocities, insisting the contrast reveals an “evident bias rooted in ethnic power dynamics.”

“True equity demands uniform application: negotiate with all or prosecute all,” Onoh declared.

 

He stressed that Kanu’s non-violent advocacy for regional autonomy and Igboho’s defensive response to criminal herders cannot be equated to mass murder or extortion. He also distanced IPOB from the violent acts of Simon Ekpa’s Eastern Security Network (ESN), saying they “have no connection.”

 

Onoh recalled that Kanu, renditioned from Kenya on June 18, 2021, has effectively spent nearly a decade in detention without conviction, much of it in solitary confinement, despite urgent pleas for medical transfer to the National Hospital in Abuja.

Similarly, he said Igboho, arrested in Benin Republic on July 19, 2021, and released after nearly a year, still faces an outstanding arrest warrant even after a court awarded him ₦20 billion in damages over the 2021 DSS raid on his Ibadan residence that killed two aides and detained 13 others.

 

“While bandits like Garwa are feted with peace pacts, releasing a mere 28 captives in Faskari as a gesture, Kanu has already served the equivalent of an eight-year sentence and Igboho has endured exile and trauma for over four years,” Onoh stated.

 

He cited statistics from the Centre for Democracy and Development and UNIDIR showing that between 2013 and 2022, banditry claimed 8,300 lives and involved 9,527 kidnappings in the Northwest, with no comparable fatalities linked to IPOB or Igboho’s activism.

“In the same period, 143,000 violent deaths occurred nationwide, mostly from banditry, insurgency and communal clashes,” he added.

 

Onoh urged President Tinubu to direct the Attorney General to withdraw all charges, quash Igboho’s warrants and facilitate Kanu’s medical release, arguing that such a move would “heal sectional wounds, deter actual terrorists and affirm that no Nigerian is above the law, nor beneath its protection.”

 

Warning that he could not in good conscience campaign for Tinubu’s second term under current circumstances, Onoh concluded:

“Your administration cannot prosecute a prisoner of conscience while embracing terrorists. Nigeria expects no less.”