IPOB protest in Nnewi disrupted by Police
We expect non-conditional release for him —Rights group
By Ikechukwu Nnochiri, Nwabueze Okonkwo & Chimaobi Nwaiwu
ABUJA—Justice John Tsoho of the Federal High Court in Abuja has fixed January 29 to determine whether or not the detained leader of the Indigenous
People of Biafra, IPOB, Mr. Nnamdi Kanu, should be released on bail pending his trial.
Kanu is answering to a six-count treason charge that was preferred against him by the federal government.
This came as the protest in Nnewi by members of Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, was yesterday disrupted by the Police Area Command in Nnewi, after a heated argument between the police and members of IPOB.
Kanu is facing trial alongside two other pro-Biafra agitators, Benjamin Madubugwu and David Nwawuisi.
Justice Tsoho adjourned ruling on the defendants’ bail applications after he entertained arguments from their lawyer and that of the federal government.
Counsel to the defendants, Mr. M. U. Udechukwu, argued that the charge levelled against his clients are bailable, saying they ought to be presumed innocent until their guilt is established.
He predicated the consolidated bail applications on the provisions of Sections 35 and 36 of the 1999 constitution, as amended, as well as sections 158 and 162 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015.
Udechukwu contended that the offence against the accused persons does not attract capital punishment upon conviction.
However, the federal government, through the Director of Public Prosecution, DPP, Mr. Mohammed Diri, opposed the release of the defendants on bail.
ARRAIGNED: Mr. Nnamdi Kanu, detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, with a Prisons official, at the premises of a Federal High Court in Abuja, yesterday.
FG insisted that the accused persons would jump bail once out of detention, alleging that Kanu, who it said has dual citizenship, “illegally sneaked” into Nigeria from the United Kingdom.
It will be recalled that the defendants had on January 20, pleaded not guilty to the six-count charge, even as Justice Tsoho remanded them in prison custody.
The trio were in the charge that was signed by the DPP, alleged to have committed treasonable felony, an offence said to be punishable under Section 41(C) of the Criminal Code Act, CAP C38 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria.
FG alleged that the accused persons were the ones managing the affairs of the IPOB which it described as “an unlawful society.”
Kanu who is also the Director of Radio Biafra and Television, was specifically alleged to have illegally smuggled radio transmitters into Nigeria.
The IPOB leader has been in detention since October 14, 2015, when he was arrested in Lagos by security operatives shortly after he arrived Nigeria from his base in the UK..
One of the charges
One of the charges against him read: “That you, Nnamdi Kanu and other unknown persons, now at large, at London, United Kingdom, between 2014 and September, 2015, with intention to levy war against Nigeria in order to force the President to change his measures of being the President of the Federation, Head of State and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federation as defined in Section 3 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended) by doing an act to wit: Broadcast on Radio Biafra your preparations for the states in the South- East geo-political zone, South-South geo-political zone, the Igala community of Kogi State and the Idoma/Igede community of Benue State to secede from the Federal Republic of Nigeria and form themselves into a Republic of Biafra, and thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 41(C) of the Criminal Code Act, CAP C38 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004.”
IPOB protest disrupted
On the disrupted protest at Nnewi, the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, were said to have marched from Onitsha to Uruagu Nnewi to protest the continued incarceration o
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