The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Community Engagement (South-East), Mrs Chioma Wesley, says President Bola Tinubu will not make any pronouncement on the ongoing trial of the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu.
She spoke to State House correspondents on Monday after she and three other regional aides briefed the President at the Aso Rock Villa, Abuja.
“Nnamdi Kanu’s case is in court, and the President cannot make any pronouncement on it. He abides by the rule of law. So, for now, we wait for the court to make that decision”, Wesley said.
Her comment followed renewed calls, especially from parts of the South-East, for Kanu’s release.
Kanu, leader of the proscribed IPOB, was first arrested in 2015.
He was granted bail in 2017, then left the country after a military operation in his hometown, Afaraukwu, Abia State.
He was rearrested and returned to Nigeria in June 2021. Since then, he has remained in the custody of the Department of State Services.
The Federal High Court has fixed November 20, 2025, to deliver judgment in his terrorism case, after he declined for the sixth time to open a defence.
Wesley said her South-East office created a citizens’ assembly to connect the Presidency with communities.
“We hit the ground running by setting up a citizens’ assembly where we can hear all the things that the citizens in the South-East have to talk about the President. We are taking the President’s policies to the grassroots and making sure that the people know what the President is doing for them.
“Our work is in the field. We are taking the Presidency down to the grassroots,” she added, noting that the team’s “greatest weapon is feedback”, she said.
From the North-Central, Dr Abiodun Essiet told reporters that the region has activated a structured, community-led response to long-running flashpoints and mistrust.
“For the North Central Region, we’ve launched what we call the Presidential community engagement peace structures across the 121 local governments. We’ve set up community peace structures to strengthen peace and also social cohesion across the North Central Region”, she said.
“This week, I’ll be going to Plateau State to set up another community peace structure. We’ll be engaging different leaders of associations—from the CAN to the MACBAN to Miyetti Allah—traditional rulers, the youth and the NCWS, to be on the same page about peace and how to strengthen social cohesion in the North-Central”, she added.
She linked local insecurity to long-standing drivers and poor infrastructure.
“I was able to share with him the level of insecurity in our region, from historical mistrust to different levels of land grabbing,” Essiet said.
She added that “illegal mining is also increasing the level of insecurity.”
She warned that bad roads between Kogi and Kwara are amplifying insecurity, with bandits occupying ungoverned forests. She also noted that the President “has promised to strengthen the peace structures.”
Essiet emphasised that the team is building a standing, community-level network to report and de-escalate conflicts.
In the North-West, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Community Engagement, Abdullahi Yakasai, said his office is simultaneously tackling out-of-school children, farm-inputs bottlenecks and voter registration.
“We highlighted to Mr President the level of out-of-school children, which, through my office, we’ve been able to enroll—4,000 children into primary schools within these two years. We give them educational materials, exercise books, uniforms and all that they require so that they go back to school”, he said.
He explained that his team is executing within the purview of its office and not in collaboration with state governments.
“We also discussed the need for voter registration. We are sensitising our youth—those that have not gotten their voter’s card—to make sure they go and get their voter’s card”, he said.
Yakasai stressed that the drive is non-partisan.
“We are doing this INEC registration not because of party affiliation. It’s every Nigerian’s civic responsibility to go and register so that he can vote—be it APC, APGA, PDP or whichever party,” he said.
From the South-West, Moreno Ojudu said her office is prioritising identification, social protection and peacemaking.
“The registration of NIN is very paramount, and it is also important to nurture our people from cradle to the grave. The Presidential Community Engagement Team exists to engage, to enlighten, to empower and to make them understand clearly the major outlines of the Renewed Hope Agenda”, she said.
She added that the aides would “appeal to the major stakeholders of the community and let them know that we will do everything to safeguard our country.”
Responding to questions about visibility and funding, the aides said their operations are largely field-based and partnership-driven.
“We work with international development partners, NGOs and multinational companies that do corporate social responsibility,” Yakasai said.
Essiet added that the teams liaise constantly with ministries, departments and agencies to “pull whatever it is we can for our people at the community level.”
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