Nnamdi Kanu appears in court after re-arrest

The leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra Nnamdi Kanu was arrested on Sunday and brought to Nigeria, the country’s attorney general Abubakar Malami said on Tuesday.

Government-owned news agency reported that the IPOB leader appeared before Justice Binta Nyako of the Federal High Court, Abuja.

Kanu, who was brought to the court amidst tight security, arrived at the court at about 1:40 pm.

Kanu is facing  a sleuth of charges, most of which are connected to his call for the independence of the southeastern region of Nigeria.
He was first arrested in October 2015 by the Nigerian government and was granted bail in April 2017.
Justice Binta Nyako ordered him not to attend any rally, grant interviews or be in a gathering of more than 10 persons.

The judge, in addition, ordered that the defendant should produce three sureties with N100 million each, who should include a highly respected Jewish leader since, according to her, the defendant claimed Judaism as his religion, a senior and highly placed individual of Igbo extraction and in the ranking of a senator, while the last is expected to be a respected individual resident in Abuja with proof of ownership of landed property.

Kanu, a former real estate agent in London, was also ordered to deposit his international passport, including his British passport with the court.
He was released after meeting all the bail conditions. 

A year and some months after soldiers raided his father’s residence in Abia state Kanu was seen in Jerusalem on October 19, 2018.

It was unclear how he got to Jerusalem without his travel documents and his trial has stalled due to his consistent absence from court.

Three persons that stood surety for him were dragged to court by the Nigerian government, claiming that the separatist leader violated terms of his bail.

In Kanu’s absence, IPOB went underground and mobilised resources to launch a militant named the Eastern Security Network (ESN).

The emergence of ESN coincided with a spike in attacks against security and government infrastructure in the south-east.