As the trial of Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, resumes at the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja this Tuesday, the Nigerian government has amended the charges it filed against Kanu, increasing the counts to include terrorism.
Currently, Kanu is facing a seven-count charge at the Federal High Court in Abuja.
Reacting to the new charges, Kanu’s lawyer, Aloy Ejimakor, accused the Federal Government of “dilatory tactics”, stressing that it’s an exercise in futility.
Wondering why the government would come up fresh charges on the eve of his resumed trials, Ejimakor disclosed trial the Abuja Federal High Court had granted Kanu three days to present his case for fresh bail, and to challenge the competence of the fresh terrorism charge brought against him by the federal government.
Kanu was in June 2021 re-arrested in Kenya and extradited to Nigeria to face his trial and had since been confined to the detention facility of the Department of the State Services, DSS, in Abuja on the order of the court.
He was first arrested in Lagos in 2015 by operatives of the Department of State Service, DSS, and was arraigned alongside four others in 2016.
Justice Nyako, however, granted him bail in 2017, but he jumped and fled the country.
Kanu had cautioned his supporters to conduct themselves with decorum during his court trial.
However, Omoyele Sowore, publisher of SaharaReporters, has slammed the Federal Government for filling fresh terrorism charge against the detained leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.
Sowore accused the Buhari administration of being the one practicing terrorism by allegedly kidnapping Kanu from Kenya.
In a post on his verified Facebook page, Sowore stated, “FreeNnamdiKanu. A government of terrorists filing frivolous terrorism charges when they are the ones that carried out a terrorist act by kidnapping Kanu from Kenya and extraordinarily “renditioning” to Nigeria! #RevolutionNow”.
