Court to Decide Whether to Quash Kanu’s Trial, April 8

  Awka, Nnewi, Onitsha grounded over sit-at-home order

Alex Enumah in Abuja and David-Chyddy Eleke in Awka

Justice Binta Nyako of the Abuja Division of the Federal High Court, will on April 8, decide whether she can continue with the trial of detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Mr. Nnamdi Kanu.

Justice Nyako yesterday adjourned to the said date to deliver her ruling in the application filed by Kanu seeking to quash the charges brought against him by the federal government. This is just as the sit-at-home  called by IPOB, yesterday  grounded commercial activities in Onitsha, Nnewi, Awka, and other cities in Anambra State. The sit-at-home order was observed following appearance of  Kanu in court yesterday.

The IPOB leader is standing trial on an amended 15 count charge bordering on alleged reasonable felony, amongst others.

Although he had pleaded not guilty to all the charges, he however filed an application to quash the charges for lacking in merit and having no substance.

At yesterday’s proceedings, Kanu’s lead lawyer, Chief Mike Ozekhome, SAN, before arguing the application to quash the charges and free the IPOB leader, complained bitterly that the Department of State Service (DSS), have continued to defy court’s orders that Kanu be allowed to change his clothes.

Ozekhome said, for three times, Kanu’s younger brother has been refused access to DSS facility where Kanu is being kept.

More so, the lead counsel lamented that since Kanu was arrested and detained, his eye glass was seized by the DSS and has not been returned to him.

“My Lord, we demand that the reading glasses of the defendant be returned to him. We can’t afford to allow him go blind,” Ozekhome stated. He also urged the court to quash, strike out and dismiss the 15-count amended charge against Kanu for being “incompetent and denying the court of jurisdiction” to entertain the 15-count amended charge.

However, federal government’s lawyer, Mr. Labaran Shuaibu, urged the court to discountenance the submission of the defendant, adding that Kanu’s deposition in some paragraphs of his application touches the substance of the case.

Labaran, therefore urged the court to dismiss the application and ordered the defendant to face his trial.

Meanwhile, the prosecution told Justice Nyako that the clothes brought by Kanu’s brother offended the service’ operational procedure, hence their refusal to accept the clothes.

The cloth is a traditional Igbo attire with the inscription of a lion’s heart. Following the DSS statement, the judge asked Kanu, “what type of cloth do you want to wear?

“I want to wear the clothes of my people, “Isi Agu”, Kanu replied.

“That kind of cloth cannot be worn in my court”, the judge held, adding that only plain clothes should be taken to the defendant for him to change his clothes.

Justice Nyako subsequently adjourned till April 8, to rule on Kanu’s application to quash the charges against him.

She, however, declined hearing in the bail application on the grounds that the application seeking to quash the charges as well as challenging the court’s jurisdiction takes precedence.

Kanu was first arrested at a hotel in Lagos in 2015 when he sneaked into the country and was initially arraigned alongside four others on a six-count charge.

However, after he jumped his bail in September 2017, his trial was separated from the others and only resumed mid last year, following his rearrest and extradition to Nigeria.

Kanu in the 15-count charge is being accused of intimidating and threatening that people will die including those who violated his sit at home directive.

In count four to seven, the IPOB leader was said to also made several broadcasts between 2018 and 2021 wherein he incited members of the public in Nigeria to hunt and kill Nigerian security personnel, including police officers and their family members.

While in count eight, Kanu was accused of directing members of IPOB to manufacture bombs, he was in count nine accused of “Intent to destabilize the fundamental political and economic structures of Nigeria” and inciting “members of the public to stop the Anambra State Election and you thereby committed an offence punishable under section 1 (2) (h) of the terrorism (Prevention) (Amendment) Act 2013”.

Meanwhile, THISDAY observed that major businesses, including banks, motor parks, filling stations, markets, schools and road side shops were shut, due to the sit-at-home order.

All roads in the cities mentioned were devoid of vehicular movement, just as it was difficult to find even pedestrians in many areas. A source said even the numerous police and military checkpoints around Anambra were not manned, just as the River Niger bridge in Onitsha, which is usually a beehive of activities on a normal day was deserted.

Though the IPOB had called off the Monday sit-at-home, people in the South-east have continued to observe it.

The group said official days for the sit-at-home would only be days when its leader, Nnamdi Kanu would be taken to court.

It was, however, gathered that Kanu’s matter in Abuja was on Wednesday adjourned to Thursday. This may lead to another round of sit at home, which will make it three days in just one week.