The International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL) has said it didn't participate in the rendition of the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu from Kenya in 2021.

The denial was given by the Vice President of INTERPOL Africa, Garba Umar during an interview on News Central TV.

The former President Muhammadu Buhari-led Nigerian government had in June 2021 announced the arrest of Kanu in Kenya through the help of INTERPOL.

A top source had revealed to SaharaReporters that “He (Kanu) was not arrested in London or anywhere in the United Kingdom. Diplomats confirmed that Kanu was picked up somewhere in Africa. The family and IPOB are very unhappy. Apparently, they have known about the trailing and arrest for some time,”

Confronted with how early INTERPOL arrested Kanu in Kenya, Umar said, “Believe you me, I want to tell you I don’t know what you are talking about. You are bringing an issue that INTERPOL is not aware of.

“INTERPOL is an international police organisation that assists law enforcement agencies within the 196 countries to look for a fugitive that runs or is hiding.

“If you look at all the other fugitives that have been brought to face justice in Nigeria, they have the link of those who were involved in the INTERPOL.

“I don’t know and I don’t want to talk about the issue of Kanu or who brought him back to Nigeria. I’m not aware how he was brought back to Nigeria or how he came back to Nigeria. INTERPOL is not aware of this. We stated this long time ago and we made it categorically clear.”

Speaking further, Umar said that “There are what we call police to police relationship, international police cooperation, and it does not necessarily bring INTERPOL. If one police and another exchange that a suspect is running from them, they can have an international police cooperation that is out of the scope of INTERPOL.

“However, if a notice is given to an individual like Blue Notices when the inmates in Kuje Prison escaped, we did a biometric capture of those suspects and we shared it with the international community and we shared it with our law enforcement agencies and many of them were re-apprehended because we have their biometrics.

“In the issue of Red Notice, where a Red Notice is issued under the federal court that issued that notice of arrest, that is warrant of arrest for such international, it will go to the INTERPOL and we will process it and look at the charges and then issue a Red Notice. On that Red Notice, we will bring back the suspect to face justice because all the 196 countries will be looking for that individual.”