The bid to get the embattled leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, released from detention has just suffered a setback as the Federal Government filed amended charges against the agitator.
OSUN DEFENDER recalls that a Court of Appeal order on October 13, 2022, discharged Kanu of all the allegations against him by President Muhammadu Buhari‘s government.
However, the Department of State Service (DSS) has continued to keep the Biafra agitator in its custody based on the subject matter still pending before the Supreme Court.
Also, the trial Justice Binta Nyako had earlier slated the following Monday for both Kanu’s team of lawyers led by Chief Mike Ozekhome, SAN, and the prosecution counsel to address the court on the way forward in the matter.
The parties are to argue on whether FG could proceed to re-arraign the IPOB leader on the amended charge, despite Appeal Court’s verdict earlier.
Amid the tussle, a document monitored by Naija News on Vanguard revealed that the amended charge marked FHC/ABJ/CR/383/2015, entered before the Federal High Court in Abuja, contained all allegations against the IPOB leader that the trial court earlier sustained.
Buhari’s government maintained in the document that Kanu had, as a member of the proscribed group, in a broadcast that was received and heard across Nigeria, issued a deadly threat that anyone who flouted his sit-at-home order in the South Eastern part of the country, should write his or her Will.
It told the court that due to the threat, Banks, Schools, Markets, Shopping Malls, and Fuel Stations domiciled in the Eastern States of Nigeria have continued to shut down their businesses, with citizens and vehicular movements grounded.
FG further alleged that the IPOB leader had, on various dates between 2018 and 2021, made broadcasts that were received and heard in Nigeria, inciting members of the public to hunt and kill Nigerian security personnel and their family members, thereby committing an offence punishable under Section 1 (2) (h) of the Terrorism Prevention Amendment Act, 2013.
More so, it alleged that Kanu directed members of the IPOB “to manufacture Bombs”, adding that the defendant had, between March and April 2015, “Imported into Nigeria and kept in Ubulisiuzor in Ihiala Local Government Area of Anambra State within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, a Radio Transmitter known as Tram 50L concealed in a container of used household items which you declared as used household items, and you thereby committed an offence contrary to section 47 (2) (a) of Criminal Code Act Cap, C45 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004”.
