The factional leader of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), Atiku Isah, has given an insight into his time in the custody of the Department of Security Services (DSS) and his meetings with Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).
Isah was arrested by the secret police over a series of allegations he made against Seyi Tinubu, the son of the president of Nigeria, Bola Tinubu.
The NANS leader had claimed that Seyi and the Minister of Youth Development, Ayodele Olawande, had offered him a N100 million bribe in Lagos to promote the president, an allegation Seyi Tinubu has since denied.
Isah was whisked away by operatives of the DSS on April 15 and held in the facility of the secret police in Abuja, where the IPOB leader is also being detained.
He was later released on June 26, 2025, after a series of protests led by publisher and activist Omoyele Sowore.
However, highlighting some of his experience while in DSS custody and moments with Kanu, the NANS leader said he met the IPOB leader following persistence by an inmate.
He said, “I now went close to him (Kanu) and said I am comrade Atiku Isah, I wanted to introduce myself and he said, “No, I know you”, and he started telling about what happened and he started telling me that I should be strong. That was how I continued discussions with him for about two months.
“So Mazi Nnamdi Kanu is somebody I know very well because if you stay with somebody on a daily basis and you’re discussing with the person on a daily basis for about two months – because in detention, you don’t have anything else to do but to sit down in one particular spot.
“And you sit down with this person on a daily basis and you’re always discussing, you should know the kind of person he is,” Isah said.
He further noted that prior to meeting the IPOB leader, he had always viewed him as a wicked person with some weird ideologies.
His words, “And let me tell you that, people don’t know that it was prior to my meeting with Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, I had thought that he was a wicked man who wanted to divide the country. I am a patriotic Nigerian; I don’t want anything that would bring confusion in this country, so for me, that is the mindset I had. But after meeting him, in the detention, I realized that the Fulanis, the Hausas, the Kanuris there are all loyal to him.
“You’ll be shocked that he has more supporters in the DSS facility than he has outside, because if anywhere you live and you have more than 95 per cent of the people who are supporting you. Before I met him, a Fulani guy told me, “oh, if you see Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, he will like you because you; you can speak English – the guy does not understand English, we were always communicating in Hausa and Arabic languages.
He said, “He will like you because you can speak English and he is a good man, if you have any problem, meet him, he’ll help you. So that is how they see Mazi Nnamdi Kanu. Everybody in that detention facility, they see him as their leader.
Isah further described Kanu as a courageous and strong leader who also detests seeing young Nigerians in difficult situations.