NNAMDI Kanu, leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, has been re-arrested and brought back to Nigeria to continue his trial.
Abubakar Malami, Nigeria’s attorney general and minister of justice, made this known at a joint press briefing on Tuesday, June 29, with Department of State Service, DSS, in Abuja.
Malami said that international collaborative efforts with security agencies aided Kanu’s arrest and repatriation to Nigeria on Sunday, June 27.
S. M. Labaran, federal government’s lawyer , presented Kanu before Federal High Court in Abuja, did not say where Kanu was arrested.
Following Labaran’s ex-parte application, Justice Binta Nyako ordered that Kanu, who was brought to court in handcuffs and hooded before the court’s sitting, be remanded in the custody of the Department of State Services, DSS.
Justice Nyako granted an accelerated hearing by bringing the charge pending against him from the earlier adjourned date of October 20 to July 26 and 27.
At the conclusion of proceedings, the DSS operatives who brought him to court, sneaked him away, using the judge’s access stairs.
Realnews reports that Kanu and his co-defendants have been facing treasonable felony charges at the Federal High Court in Abuja. Justice Nyako granted him bail but Kanu jumped bail.
He fled the country in September 2017 after an invasion of his home by the military in Afara-Ukwu, near Umuahia, Abia State.
The Nigerian government obtained a court order on September 20, 2017, to designate IPOB a terrorist group and to proscribe it.
Kanu has been in the forefront of demanding an independent Biafran country from the Nigeria through referendum.
Realnews recalls that he was arrested alongside three others on October 14, 2015, in Lagos, and was granted bail by Justice Binta Nyako on April 25, 2017, on health grounds. The judge adjourned the matter to November.
However, following the clash between the army and IPOB before the adjourned date, he fled the country, claiming that they came to kill him. The judge frowned at his disappearance and blamed his sureties for his jumping bail.
His sureties led by Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe who provided the N100 million bond bail in turn blamed the army for causing the disappearance of Kanu.
Since he fled the country, Kanu resumed his popular broadcast to his followers through the Radio Biafra calling for the establishment of Biafra through referendum.
On May 31, he called for a sit-at-home in the South East to mourn the fallen heros of Biafra. The South East was grounded and no movement was recorded. That greatly upset the Federal Government which upped the ante to arrest Kanu. That effort has yielded fruit.
With his arrest, Nigerians are watching with bated breath to see how the trial will proceed and whether the fight for the establishment of Biafra will be continued by his followers within and outside the country.
– June 29, 2021 @ 14:49 GMT|
