• Denies supporting violence in South East
A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, yesterday, refused to grant bail to the leader of the proscribed Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, over the terrorism charges against him.
Justice Binta Nyako declined to grant Kanu bail on the ground that the earlier application he filed had been refused.
The court held that the only option open to Kanu was to go to the Court of Appeal to challenge the earlier refusal. The Judge also refused to give unfettered access to just anybody to visit Kanu in custody for security reasons.
The IPOB leader had on February 26 applied for a fresh bail and predicated his request mainly on the ground that he may not be able to put up a good defence in the charges against him unless admitted to bail to have free access to his lawyers.
He also claimed to be suffering from acute hypertension and heart disease, among others. The Federal Government, however, objected to the request on the ground that Kanu was once granted bail, but jumped and fled the country.
Justice Nyako asked the defendant to proceed to the Court of Appeal to ventilate his anger against the earlier decision of the court rather than coming back with the same request.
Meanwhile, the Federal Government, represented at the proceedings by Adegboyega Awomolo, is pressing for an opening of trial in the terrorism charges.
MEANWHILE, Kanu has disassociated himself from the violence in the South East, saying that the violence persisted because he was in detention.
He vowed that those behind the violence in the name of IPOB would not be spared. He spoke immediately the court rose, yesterday, after he was denied bail.
Kanu vowed that if released, there would be peace in the entire South East.
He said: “Anybody committing crime cannot go free. I swear. Anybody committing crime in the East cannot go free. They are doing it because I am in the Department of State Services (DSS) custody.”
If I were to be outside, nobody could have tried this. I suspect that some people in government are complicit. They are making money with insecurity.
“They know if Kanu is outside, in two minutes, this nonsense will stop. Who is the bagger or idiot that will speak when I am talking? Who is the idiot that I will counter my order? Nobody can.”
