Did Tinubu approve Nnamdi Kanu’s release?

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Sunday Awosoro

Claim: A TikTok user shared a video claiming that President Bola Tinubu had granted Nnamdi Kanu bail.

Verdict: Misleading! The footage used in this narrative has been on YouTube since 2017 and is unrelated to Kanu’s recent sentence.

Full Text

A claim has been circulating on TikTok, alleging that President Bola Tinubu has granted bail to Nnamdi Kanu.

The post included a clip from Channels Television showing the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) leader leaving prison premises. The accompanying voice-over in the footage stated that Kanu had been released from Kuje prison after fulfilling his bail conditions.

“Mazi Kanu’s release brings joy! Join us as we celebrate this great news and thank President Tinubu for this approval,” a caption attached to the video read.

Did Tinubu approve Nnamdi Kanu’s release? — *A screenshot of the viral post on TikTok.*

Although several users have questioned the authenticity of this claim, a few others celebrated, believing it to be true. DUBAWA conducted this verification due to the controversy that has since followed the post.

Verification

Kanu was sentenced to life imprisonment for terrorism on Nov. 20, 2025, by the Federal High Court in Abuja. He was immediately moved to the Sokoto Correctional Centre due to “security risks.”

The viral video claimed that Kanu had been granted bail from Kuje prison in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT); meanwhile, he has been in Sokoto since the recent sentence. In addition, there has been no news of his transfer to Kuje. This inconsistency, therefore, raises a red flag.

A keyframe analysis and subsequent reverse image search led to the original version, in which Channels Television truly announced that Kanu had been released after meeting bail conditions. However, this news was published on April 28, 2017.

Nigeria has been prosecuting Kanu for about a decade. Before his 2017 bail, he was arrested in 2015 over some atrocities he allegedly committed in his role as an IPOB leader. The 2017 broadcast by Channels TV and other outlets, including The Guardian newspaper, occurred before his rearrest in 2021, which eventually led to his lifetime sentence in 2025.