IPOB Criticizes Anambra Governor Soludo for Attacking Obi Over Calls to Release Kanu

• Says he’s pandering to political interests

The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has criticized Anambra State Governor Charles Soludo after the governor attacked presidential candidate Peter Obi of the Nigerian Democratic Congress (NDC) for calling for the release of Nnamdi Kanu, the incarcerated leader of IPOB.

Soludo’s remarks were made in a statement released over the weekend by his Special Adviser on Media, Ejimofor Opara, in which he said Obi’s demand for Kanu’s freedom was “a major slap on the Nigerian judiciary.”

The governor’s anger was sparked by Obi’s recent remarks to Nigerians in Washington DC, where Obi reiterated that Kanu’s continued incarceration was unjustifiable.

In a statement from its spokesman, Comrade Emma Powerful, IPOB expressed “utter disgust and righteous anger” at Soludo’s reversal on the issue of Kanu’s release.

IPOB described Soludo’s new position as “a tragic betrayal, a painful display of naked hypocrisy and desperate political prostitution.”

The group’s frustration grew because of Soludo’s earlier support for Kanu’s release. “Let it be known to the world that in January 2023, the same Governor Soludo made a high‑profile visit to Mazi Nnamdi Kanu at the DSS facility in Abuja. He sat with our leader, shook his hands, looked into his eyes, and publicly demanded his release,” the statement read.

“He went as far as offering to stand as surety for Kanu. As recently as March 2025, Soludo’s own Commissioner for Information, Mr. Law Mefor, boasted that the governor ‘has been actively working towards Kanu’s release’ because he believed it would restore peace in the South‑East,” the group added.

IPOB lamented that after this past advocacy, “Today, the same Soludo, through his aides, describes Peter Obi’s identical call for justice as ‘a slap on the Nigerian judiciary’ and claims it undermines judicial processes.”

“This is not statesmanship. This is the height of treachery and political chameleonic behaviour,” the statement said, blaming Soludo’s reversal on his “blind and shameless ambition to become Vice President in 2031 under a Fulani‑led ticket.”