IPOB: Court Orders DSS On Nnamdi Kanu’s Change Of Clothes

• Fixes Jan 18 to hear application on quashing charges

The Federal High Court sitting in Abuja on Thursday ordered the Department of State Services (DSS) to allow the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, to practice his faith and change his clothes as occasion demands.

This is as the Court presided over by Justice Binta Nyako deferred till January 18, 2022, hearing of the application filed by Kanu to quash the treasonable felony charge preferred against him by the Federal Government.

The adjournment came on a day the court equally directed the Nigerian secret police to ensure the detained IPOB leader enjoys “maximum possible comfort in the detention facility”.

Remanded in DSS’ custody since June 2021 when he was arrested in Kenya and brought back to Nigeria for the continuation of his trial, Kanu has been wearing only one attire.

On both occasions that he was brought before the court by heavily-armed security agents, the IPOB leader has worn a designer’s Fendi trousers and jacket that he reportedly put on the day his arrest was effected.

However, Kanu was absent in court at the resumed proceedings of his case on Thursday.

On November 10, 2021, the trial Justice Nyako had adjourned the trial till January 19, 2022, but she however brought the date forward, following an application by Kanu’s legal team for an abridgment of the date.

When the matter was called up, the government lawyer, Mr. Shuaib Labaran, told the court that he filed a counter-affidavit to oppose Kanu’s requests for abridgment of time and for the charge to be quashed.

But not ready to take arguments from both the prosecution and the defence counsels, Justice Nyako, after reviewing the court’s diary, directed that the case would be heard on January 18, which is a day before the initial adjourned date.

Accordingly, Justice Nyako said all pending applications would be heard by the court on the new adjourned date.

In an application filed by his team of lawyers led by Mr. Ifeanyi Ejiofor, the embattled IPOB leader is requesting the court to acquit and discharge him of all counts on the charge sheet, arguing that the court lacks the requisite jurisdiction to try him on the basis of a charge he said was grossly incompetent.

Contending that there was no proof of evidence attached to the amended charge against him, Kanu said; “No allegation was made in any of the counts of the amended charge that the alleged sundry acts of the defendant/applicant were physically carried out by him, within the geographical space or territorial boundaries of Nigeria.

“That the only element required to constitute and found liability for incitement is the actual words allegedly uttered by the defendant/applicant. That the alleged acts for which the defendant was charged do not constitute terrorism offences in London, United Kingdom, where they were allegedly committed.”

In one of the earlier appearances in Court, the IPOB leader’s application to be transferred from DSS’ custody to the Kuje Correctional Centre was refused by the Court which instead ordered the Secret Police to ensure he has access to three visitors of his choice, every Monday and Thursday of the week.

And reacting to that court ruling, a member of the legal team, Mr Maxwell Opara, had hinted that the application for Nkanu’s transfer to Kuje Correctional Centre would be revisited at the next adjourned date.