IPOB cautions media against reporting that Kanu jumped bail

[FILES] Men of the Nigeria State Secret Police (SSS) escorts Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu (2nd L), outside the Federal High Court during the trial of the IPOB leader who is facing a 7-count amended charge on alleged treasonable felony and terrorism at the Federal High Court in Abuja, Nigeria, on October 21, 2021. - A high-profile case against a Nigerian separatist accused of terrorism and treason was adjourned on October 21, 2021, lawyers said, after a court appearance under heavy security in the capital Abuja. Nnamdi Kanu, 53, leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) group, which wants a separate state for the ethnic Igbo people in the southeast, was arrested abroad in June and brought back to Nigeria to face trial. (Photo by Kola Sulaimon / AFP)

The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has warned media platforms against continued reporting that its leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu jumped bail.

In a statement issued, yesterday, by its Spokesman, Comrade Emma Powerful, the group said such report would amount to publishing falsehood and distorting facts.

He said the warning followed an Abia state High Court judgment of January 19, 2022 in the fundamental rights suit Kanu instituted against the Federal Government and seven other defendants.

The group recalled that the court indicted the Federal Government and the Nigeria Army for military invasion of Kanu’s Afaraukwu Ibeku home in September 2017.

In its judgment, the court held that Kanu proved that the Federal Government violated and threatened his fundamental rights to dignity of human person, personal liberty and life.

IPOB further stated that it would, therefore, be wrong to continue to claim that Kanu jumped bail, adding that it will also amount to contempt of court to report that Kanu jumped bail.

He warned that IPOB would not hesitate to take legal action against any media platform that continues to push such falsehood, arguing: “If Kanu truly jumped bail, a court of competent jurisdiction would not have ordered the Federal Government and the Army to pay him N1 billion compensation and apologise to him for violating his rights.

“IPOB is not an unlawful organisation and will not be, because Nigeria court said so and we will not take it lightly with anybody that tries to give us a fake identity.”

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