Don’t Leave Sokoto Without Biafra, Chimezie Tells Nnamdi Kanu

Don’t Leave Sokoto Without Biafra, Chimezie Tells Nnamdi Kanu The National President of the Igbo Women Assembly (IWA) said any negotiation w...

Don’t Leave Sokoto Without Biafra, Chimezie Tells Nnamdi Kanu

The National President of the Igbo Women Assembly (IWA) said any negotiation with the Nigerian government over Nnamdi Kanu release must include Biafra’s freedom and the release of innocent Igbo youths in prison. She reminded Kanu of his public pledge not to walk out of prison without Biafra and urged him not to break that promise to his supporters.

The caution comes as talk of a “political settlement” around Kanu has intensified. Kanu, leader was convicted on terrorism-related charges by a Federal High Court in Abuja on 20 November 2025 and sentenced to life imprisonment. He is held at the Sokoto Custodial Centre. An appeal filed in February 2026 has not been heard.

Abia State Governor Alex Otti has repeatedly said he activated a strategy to secure Kanu’s freedom through high-level engagement with federal authorities. Kanu’s special counsel, Aloy Ejimakor, said in late September 2026 that Kanu remains open to a political settlement with Nigerian governmnet, comparing the posture to Nelson Mandela’s, and that secret talks involving a South-East governor have continued. Ejimakor also said any such solution must rest on honour and good faith, and that the world is waiting for South-East governors to report progress.

Chimezie’s message is that personal freedom cannot be separated from the cause Kanu has led. She has argued in earlier public remarks that Kanu would not leave prison without Biafra. In this latest intervention she added that any political settlment that ignores imprisoned youths would amount to abandoning the people in whose name the agitation is fought.

Other Igbo leaders have pressed for an administrative or political resolution focused on Kanu’s release rather than secession. IPOB itself has at times rejected “begging” for pardon and insisted on unconditional release on legal grounds.

Chimezie is not an official IPOB spokesperson. She leads a socio-cultural women’s group that campaigns on Igbo language, militarisation of the South-East, and the release of political detainees. She has visited Kanu in Sokoto and spoken frequently about his case. Relations with his legal and family circle have been strained: in January 2026 lawyers conveyed Kanu’s instruction that she stop issuing public statements in his name; in July 2026 Kanu filed a defamation suit against her over separate viral videos. Those disputes do not erase the substance of her present warning, which restates a demand long heard among hardline supporters: no personal exit without the larger political objective.

Whether Kanu can or will attach Biafra independence and a mass prisoner release to any deal with Nigerian Governmnet is another matter.  A settlement that only frees Kanu would satisfy governors and some families seeking de-escalation in the South-East; it would be read by others as a betrayal of the pledge Chimezie is now invoking.

That is the fault line her statement exposes. As South-East politicians talk quietly about a political solution, an outspoken Igbo women’s leader is telling Kanu that walking out alone would not be freedom. It would be a broken promise.

Family Writers Press International