Kanu’s Re-arrest, Repatriation Followed Due Legal Process – FG
BY VICTOR BUORO, ABUJA – The Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr Abubakar Malami has said the rearrest of the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, was in accordance with due legal process.
Special Assistant to the Minister on Media and Public Relations, Dr Jibrilu Gwandu, who stated the position of the federal government, said the bench warrant on Nnamdi Kanu was lawfully and judiciously procured through judicial process by a competent court of law, whose bail conditions he breached with impunity.
He explained that Nnamdi Kanu was represented by a lawyer throughout the judicial process that led to the grant of his earlier bail.
The IPOB leader who was initially arrested in late 2015 after calling for a separate state for Biafra, was brought back to Nigeria last Sunday after his re-arrest and was re-arraigned before a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja on Tuesday and ordered to be remanded in the custody of the Department of State Services (DSS), while the case was adjourned till July 26 and July 27.
According to Gwandu; “Nnamdi Kanu has been represented by a counsel all through the judicial process and was never denied a right of choice of counsel or recourse to one, even when he symbolises a proscribed association (IPOB) in law and, in fact, his association has been legally proscribed.
Gwandu said that even though the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation had a meeting with the British High Commissioner on Thursday, the IPOB leader’s re-arrest was not part of the discussion.
He further said; “The legality or otherwise of Nnamdi Kanu’s arrest was not discussed at the meeting. The meeting was scheduled long before his (Kanu) arrest”.
The IPOB leader who is facing 11-count charge of terrorism, treasonable felony, treason, and illegal possession of firearms, among others, jumped bail in 2017 and later left the country, only to appear in Israel and later in the United Kingdom.
