Biafra: Court to Rule on Kanu’s Bail Thursday

Senator Iroegbu in Abuja 

The Federal High Court in Abuja will on December 17, 2015 decide whether or not to grant the Director of Radio Biafra, Mr. Nnamdi Kanu, bail.

Justice Adeniyi Ademola at the resumed hearing monday, gave the date  after taking arguments from both parties involved in the bail application.

Kanu, who is also the Leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), has been in detention by the Department of State Security (DSS) since October this year, when he was apprehended by the DSS operatives in Lagos and moved to Abuja.

Arguing, the counsel to the DSS, Mr. Moses Idakwo, objected to Kanu’s bail application and asked the court not to admit the suspect on bail because he was allegedly involved in terrorism acts.

Idakwo told Justice Ademola that the federal government, was in possession of bank accounts of the accused person for dollars and pound sterling from where he had been financing terrorism acts against the country.

Besides, the counsel also submitted that Kanu has dual citizenship of Britain and Nigeria and he could flee and escape justice if allowed to go on bail.

But counsel to Kanu, dismissed the claims of the DSS on the grounds that they were speculative and not supported with any documents to buttress their claim.

Kanu’s lawyer had earlier asked the court to set aside an order it earlier granted  the DSS operatives to detain him for 90 days on alleged investigation for terrorism against  him by the federal government.

Kanu also asked the court to strike out a criminal charge with reference no FHC/ABJ/CS/873/2015 brought against him by the SSS.

In a motion on notice argued before Justice Ademola, the IPOB Coordinator applied for an order of the court admitting him to bail and also directing the DSS to obey an order of the Chief Magistrate Court which had earlier granted him bail in the motion argued by his counsel, Mr. Egechukwu Obetta.

He claimed that the order of the Federal High court that permitted the SSS to detain him for 90 days pending the investigation of terrorism allegations against him was obtained fraudulently by the SSS.

The grounds of Kanu’s application was among others, that the ex-parte motion dated and filed on October 26 by the DSS and upon which the permission to detain him was granted was an abuse of court process brought in complete bad fate.

The detained Biafran leader alleged that the DSS did not reveal to the Federal High Court the fact of the pendency  of a criminal charge already brought against him by the DSS in the Abuja Chief Magistrate Court.

Kanu also claimed that the magistrate  where he was arraigned by DSS was a creation of statute and recognised under the law and that all his decisions and proceedings ought to be binding on all parties until set aside on appeal.

The Biafran independence activist in the grant of his application also claimed that the allegations of sponsoring and financing terrorism against him was a bare allegation and not supported with any trade of evidence that he was preparing to take up arms against the Nigerian nation.

Kanu further claimed that his continued detention in spite of the order of the magistrate that released him on bail was a trespass and in violation of his basic freedom as guarantee by the 1999 Constitution. 

He further urged the court to set aside the order that he be detained for 90 days on the grounds that Section 27 of the Terrorism Prevention Act 2003 and any other provision which empowers the court to make order for his detention or any other person beyond 24 hours without trial was against the constitution.