President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday said he was not going to allow the release from custody of a former National Security Adviser, retired Colonel Dasuki Sambo, and the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu.
Buhari gave the explanation during his first Presidential Media Chat since coming into office on May 29, 2015.
The President accused Kanu of having two passports – one Nigerian, one British – and coming into the country without using any passport.
He equally dismissed the agitation for a Biafra State, saying the Igbos are not marginalised in the present day Nigeria.
He said Igbo were in strategic positions in his cabinet, including being Ministers of Petroleum and Labour and the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria.
Buhari accused Dasuki of committing atrocities against Nigeria through reckless disbursement of billions of government funds.
Asked on the alleged flouting of court orders by the state on the issue of Dasuki and Kanu, Buhari said: “Technically, if you see the kind of atrocities those people committed… if they jump bail?
“I am sorry to say this publicly…the former president just wrote to the governor of the CBN and said give N40 billion to someone, while you have two million Internally Displaced Persons.
“What kind of country do you want to run?
“The one you called Kanu, do you know he has two passports?
“One Nigerian, one British and he came to this country without using any passport?
“Do you know that he brought sophisticated equipment into this country and started broadcasting for Radio Biafra?
“There is a treasonable charge against him and I hope the court will listen to the case.
“They say they are marginalised but they have not defined the extent of marginalisation.
“Who is marginalising them?
“Where?
“Do you know?
“Choosing a minister is not a matter of ethnicity, it is a matter of the constitution.
“I am limited by what the constitution says that there must be a member of the executive council from each state.
“There is a lot of partisan politics in it.
“Who is the Minister of State for Petroleum?
“Is he not an Igbo?
“Who is the governor of the CBN?
“Is he not an Igbo?
“Who is the Minister of Labour?
“Who is the Minister of Science and Technology?
“What do they want?
“I stood elections and I won.
“I am limited by the constitution.
“I have a member of every state in the Federal Executive Council and I have to listen to them when I sit as chairman.
“That is the limit the constitution gave me.”
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