Media entrepreneur and Ovation International publisher, Dele Momodu, has urged the Federal Government to release the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu.
In a post shared on his X (formerly Twitter) handle on Tuesday, the former presidential candidate appealed to the government to tackle the root causes of separatist agitation in the South-East.
Momodu’s statement included a clip of one of Kanu’s broadcasts recorded shortly before his repatriation from Kenya by Nigerian security agents.
He said the agitation for Biafra stems from “decades of marginalisation and deprivation” suffered by the Igbo people.
“Shortly before his abduction from Kenya by the Nigerian government, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu made this thought-provoking broadcast in which he philosophised about the reasons he and his supporters became radicalised,” Momodu wrote.
He criticised those who condemned Kanu and his followers without understanding the historical and political context behind their agitation.
“I have taken time to listen to his critics and discovered most of them only jumped to conclusions without proper analysis of why agitation for Biafra became reignited, attractive, and fanciful after the pogrom that wasted millions of lives and destroyed unimaginable properties in the 1960s and ’70s,” he said.
Momodu also quoted Kanu as saying that the “continuing marginalisation of the Igbo, and deprivation accorded some of the most energetic and vibrant brains in Africa, and globally, rekindled the Biafra sentiment.”
He cautioned that attempts to silence or eliminate Kanu would not end the agitation, insisting that the Igbo struggle required political—not legal or military—solutions.
“Attempts by enemies of Kanu, including his own kinsmen, to exterminate him will never solve the problem. The Igbo struggle goes beyond legalese. It requires serious political reconfiguration, and urgently too,” he said.
While clarifying that he does not support violence, Momodu called on the government to engage the South-East constructively.
“I will never support violence. But any sensible government will keep the geniuses of the South-East very busy, with productive engagements, instead of this rabid hatred,” he added.
Momodu’s remarks come amid renewed appeals from political leaders, civil rights groups, and Igbo socio-cultural organisations for Kanu’s release and a political resolution to the ongoing separatist crisis in the region.