The leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, has approached the Appeal Court urging it to restore the bail granted to him by an Abuja Federal High Court.
In 2017, the Federal High Court, Abuja, granted Kanu bail on treasonable felony charges filed against him by the Federal Government.
However, the court revoked Kanu’s bail and issued a bench warrant for his arrest after he failed to present himself as required. In 2021, Kanu was rearrested in Kenya and extradited to Nigeria. In April 2022, Justice Binta Nyako of the Federal High Court struck out eight of the 15 counts in the charge. The remaining seven counts were also quashed by the Court of Appeal on October 13, 2022, with the judge ordering Kanu’s release.
However, on October 28, 2022, the Appeal Court in Abuja granted a stay of execution on its verdict discharging Kanu after the Federal Government filed an appeal at the Supreme Court.
On December 15, 2023, a five-member panel of the Supreme Court reversed the verdict of the Appeal Court and ordered Kanu to resume his trial before the Federal High Court.
On May 20, 2024, refusing Kanu’s application to restore his bail in line with the Supreme Court ruling, Justice Nyako entered an order modifying the conditions of counsel visitation to the detained IPOB leader.
However, Kanu’s lead counsel, Aloy Ejimakor, faulted Justice Nyako’s ruling on four grounds.
The appeal reads: “Take notice that the Appellant, being dissatisfied with the ruling of the Federal High Court, Abuja Division, delivered on May 20, 2024, more particularly set out in Paragraph 2, does hereby appeal to the Court of Appeal, Abuja, upon the grounds set out in Paragraph 3 below and will at the hearing of the Appeal seek the reliefs set out in Paragraph 4 of this Notice of Appeal.
“The part of the decision/ruling relating to the refusal of the trial court to transfer/remand the Appellant to a safe place of custody or restore/reinstate his bail.”
MEANWHILE, IPOB, yesterday, said that it is only Kanu that could call for a Biafra referendum. Separatist group noted that the date for the referendum, along with the criteria and schedule, would be announced, emphasising that it would be organised within the framework of United Nations (UN) laws and the African Charter.
The spokesman of IPOB, Emma Powerful, urged Igbo to ignore Simon Ekpa, a self-proclaimed Biafra Prime Minister based in Finland, for attempting to trivialise the referendum and the secession struggle.
