You failed before judgment, can’t change verdict now — Bashir Ahmad tells Kanu’s supporters
Former media aide to the late President Muhammadu Buhari, Bashir Ahmad, has told supporters and stakeholders of Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) leader Nnamdi Kanu that they cannot overturn his conviction after failing to intervene before judgment was delivered.
Ahmad, in a post on X, criticised South-East leaders for what he described as misplaced efforts, insisting that their renewed advocacy cannot alter a verdict issued by a competent court.
He accused them of giving Kanu “false hope” rather than advising him to conduct himself responsibly at the Sokoto Custodial Centre, where he is serving a life sentence.
According to him, “What the stakeholders from the East should be concentrating on is advising Nnamdi Kanu, a convicted terrorist, to conduct himself responsibly in Sokoto prison rather than giving him false hope that they will secure his release.
“They could not intervene while he was awaiting judgment, and they certainly cannot overturn a verdict already delivered by a competent court of law.”
Kanu was convicted by Justice James Omotosho of the Federal High Court in Abuja on terrorism-related charges filed by the Federal Government over his agitation for an independent Biafra state.
In recent days, political leaders from the South-East have renewed calls for his release. Abia State Governor Alex Otti visited Kanu at the Sokoto facility last week before meeting President Bola Tinubu to discuss the matter.
Ahmad, however, maintained that such visits and appeals do not change the legal reality of Kanu’s conviction.
