By Tobi Soniyi in Abuja
The embattled Director of Radio Biafra and leader of the Indegenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu has accused President Muhammadu Buhari of making statements capable of prejudicing his trial for treasonable felony.
Kanu who spoke through his lawyer, Ifeanyi Ejiofor at a media briefing in Abuja said that, the recent comments made by the president during his visit to Katsina was influencing the court to convict him for treasonable felony, even when his appeal for bail was before the Abuja Court of Appeal.
“The moment the president pronounced to the whole world that Nnamdi Kanu cannot be granted bail by any court, that moment he made Nnamdi Kanu a political prisoner, and as such, most of part of the media chat inadvertently posited the judge when Kanu was refused bail by the presiding judge.
“Only few days ago, he also went into the issue of if he can be granted bail or not, these are issues we consider prejudicial to the matter before the court because the mindset of the judicial officers will be apparently affected in one way or the other, as the pronouncement of the president could also be said to be an order.
“It is pertinent for members of the public to know that his pronouncement in recent days is inadvertently affecting the matter before the court and that impression should be corrected because we do not expect such pronouncement, especially when the matter is before the court, having taken him to court, we believe they should allow the courts to determine the matter”, he said.
He further said that both parties should remain calm and the federal government should refrain from comments that were prejudicial and amounted to giving out orders that would affect the mind of judges.
On the issue of him not accepting food from any member of the public except his brother, the lawyer explained that the legal team investigated the issue, and aligned with him because there were some steps that were taken by some personnel under directive from certain quarters that they should be monitoring and harassing him and make the environment uncomfortable to him.
“All these were investigated and we believe he has a cause of action to that regard and so we asked him not to eat food from other people so that he will be comfortable with what he eats because his health and life is of concern to us.
“Not that he is being harassed exactly by the prison authorities, but because of the politics involved in it, some persons have interest in the matter. There was a time his cell was invaded and he was harassed, they acted against their will but on the directives of some higher authority, that concern has however been addressed”, he added.
