Kanu requests for his freedom as court adjourns trial to April 8 – Nexus News
Detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, yesterday, requested for his freedom, as he questioned the validity of the 15-count amended charge the Federal Government preferred against him
During resumed hearing of the claimed terrorism charges pressed against him, Justice Binta Nyako of the Federal High Court Abuja, fixed April 8, 2022 for ruling on a preliminary objection filed by his lawyer.
The court scheduled the date after his counsel, Mike Ozekhome, and the prosecution counsel, Shuaibu Labaran, debated for and against the defendant’s preliminary objection.
Ozekhome had pleaded with the court to discharge and dismiss offenses filed against Kanu, opposing that the 15-count amended charge was defective and unfounded.
Specifically, Ozekhome told the court that his application requests to quash, strike out and dismiss the 15-count amended charge against Kanu for incompetence and denying the court of authority to entertain the charge.
However, Labaran demanded the court to disapprove Kanu’s objection and continue to order him to enter defence.
“We wish to state emphatically and particularly in paragraphs 7, 8, 9, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29 and 30 of the affidavit in support of the motion as going into the substance of the case yet to be heard,” he said.
Director of Legal, Directorate of State Services (DSS) informed the court that Kanu’s family members brought a cloth with a lion’s heart, which, he stated “offends our standard operating procedures.”
Ozekhome had complained that despite the court’s order, the DSS had deprived Kanu the opportunity to change cloths. Justice Nyako questioned the defendant; “Kanu, what type of cloth do you want to wear?
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“I want to wear the clothes of my people, “Isi Agu,” Kanu answered.
Replying swiftly, the judge said: “That kind of cloth cannot be worn in my court. BESIDES, Kanu informed the court that he was going blind and pleaded with the judge to save him, stating that since his detention, he had not been permitted to use the reading glasses provided by his family.
Ozekhome informed Justice Binta Nyako that his client’s glasses brought to Kenya where he was arrested was ruined, while being arrested.
The defendant further reported that the DSS seized the glasses he brought to Nigeria in 2015 when he was first arrested and have not been given to him.
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