How APGA crisis stopped Nnamdi Kanu from becoming Reps member in 2007

The incarcerated leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) missed out on the chance to contest for a House of Representatives seat in 2007 due to a crisis in his party at the time, the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA).

The founder and pioneer chairman of APGA, Chief Chekwas Okorie, revealed this while discussing the protracted crisis in the party in a recent interview.

Okorie said the age-long APGA crisis paved the way for the emergence of IPOB, which effectively put paid to Kanu's ambition of becoming a lawmaker in the House of Representatives.

The separatist leader is currently in detention following his ongoing trial by the Federal Government on allegations of treason and perpetuating falsehood against the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari.

Kanu, who used the controversial Radio Biafra outlet and social media platforms to propagate several anti-Nigeria rhetorics, was forcibly repatriated from Kenya in 2021, having fled the country after he was granted bail.

ALSO READ: 'Anybody coming to try me in court is a terrorist' - Nnamdi Kanu

The Department of State Services (DSS) has continued to hold him in detention despite pleading not guilty to all the charges preferred against him by the government.

The court also rejected Kanu's request to either be put on house arrest or transferred to a custodial centre pending the hearing and determination of his trial.

Okorie regrets turnout of events

Commenting on the IPOB leader's travail, Okorie opined that things might have turned out differently if there was no crisis in APGA.

He described the separatist agitator as a passionate and determined young man when he appointed him chairman of the party in the United Kingdom back in 2002.

“Let me tell you this. Maybe it will be new to many people. If APGA did not have a crisis, there would have been no IPOB. I will tell you why. I was the one who appointed Nnamdi Kanu as chairman of APGA in the UK in 2002. He was very young and saw me as a father. I saw his passion.

“His interest was to go for House of Reps in his constituency come 2007 election. By then, the opportunity for 2003 had gone. So, I said that for the passion and commitment he showed in this party, I earned the right to offer him a choice of first refusal for that constituency ticket for 2007.

“But as I told you earlier, a crisis broke out in December 2004. So, there was no 2007 anymore. Everybody, including Nnamdi Kanu, led the delegations from the UK because we had APGA in Europe, America and other places," Okorie told Saturday Punch.