Labour Party presidential candidate in the 2023 elections, Peter Obi, has voiced support for activist Omoyele Sowore’s campaign demanding the release of detained Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) leader, Nnamdi Kanu, calling his continued detention “irrelevant” and counterproductive.
Speaking on Wednesday during a visit to LEA Primary School, Kapwa, Abuja, alongside African Democratic Congress chairmanship candidate Dr Moses Paul, Obi said Nigeria’s unity could only be achieved through dialogue and engagement, not repression.
“I’ve always been consistent on Nnamdi Kanu’s situation. There was no need for his arrest in the first place,” Obi said. “For me, I will consult, negotiate, and discuss with anybody who is agitating. I said it clearly, and I remain there.”
The former Anambra State governor commended Sowore and others advocating Kanu’s release, saying their campaign echoed what he had long maintained — that sustainable peace depends on open dialogue and respect for the rule of law.
“I thank those who are actually trying to do or say what we’ve been saying for a long time,” he said. “Now that it has gone to court, the rules should be followed—not just for Nnamdi Kanu, but for all agitators across the nation.”
Obi’s comments come ahead of a planned nationwide protest, tagged #FreeNnamdiKanuNow, which Sowore is set to lead on 20 October in Abuja. The African Action Congress presidential candidate has described the march as a peaceful and lawful demand for justice, urging South-East governors, lawmakers, and community leaders—including Obi—to show solidarity.
Sowore has in recent weeks met with several prominent figures, including former President Goodluck Jonathan, who reportedly agreed to raise Kanu’s detention with President Bola Tinubu. Others backing the call include former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, human rights lawyer Femi Falana, and Senator Shehu Sani, all of whom have described Kanu’s continued incarceration as a breach of due process.
Kanu has been in the custody of the Department of State Services since 2021, following his controversial re-arrest and extradition from Kenya. Despite an October 2022 Court of Appeal judgment discharging and acquitting him, the Federal Government has yet to comply, maintaining terrorism and treason charges that Kanu continues to deny.
Obi’s latest remarks place him among a growing coalition of national voices urging the Tinubu administration to address Kanu’s case through dialogue and lawful means — a move observers say could ease ethnic tensions and foster long-overdue reconciliation in the South-East and beyond.
