The freedom currently enjoyed by leader of the Independent People of Biafra IPOB, Nnamdi Kanu may soon be short lived following a fresh High Court order for his arrest.
The Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, yesterday issued a bench warrant for arrest of the leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra IPOB, Nnamdi Kanu.
According to the ruling by trial, Justice Binta Nyako, equally revoked the bail it earlier granted to the IPOB leader who is facing treasonable felony charge.
Placing reliance on section 352(4) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, ACJA, 2015, the court, said it would go ahead to try Kanu in absentia.
Justice Nyako said the order was informed by the inability of Kanu’s lawyer, Mr. Ifeanyi Ejiofor, to give “cogent, compelling and verifiable reason” why his client repeatedly failed to appear in court to answer to the charge the Federal Government preferred against him. The court subsequently fixed June 18 to commence Kanu’s trial in his absence.
The ruling followed an application FG made on Wednesday after Kanu’s case was called up for trial. Kanu, whose whereabouts has remained unknown since September 2017, was hitherto answering to a five-count charge FG entered against him and three other pro-Biafra agitators, Chidiebere Onwudiwe, Benjamin Madubugwu and David Nwawuisi. Meanwhile, shortly after the IPOB leader was declared “missing”, trial Justice Nyako, on February 20, 2018, okayed separate trial for the other three defendants. Kanu, who has dual citizenship, had since been reportedly sighted at various locations outside the country, including Jerusalem and the United Kingdom. FG’s lawyer, Mr. M. S. Labaran, had at the resumed proceeding, persuaded the court to revoke the bail it granted to the defendant on April 25, 2016. Labaran drew attention of the court to the fact that all the three persons that stood surety for the IPOB leader, had since applied to withdraw from the matter.
“We humbly submit that the defendant has been given adequate opportunity in line with Section 352(4) of the ACJA.
“When he failed to utilize such opportunity, the court took the appropriate step of initiating proceeding requiring the sureties to show cause. “Even at that, this court has been so magnanimous in granting several adjournments, giving the sureties the opportunity to show cause. “Consequent upon which the court delivered a ruling on November 14, 2018, for the sureties to forfeit their bail bond. A matter that is currently the subject of appeal.
