By Olisemeka Sony (With Agency reports)
A Federal High Court in Abuja on Tuesday, fixed October 17 as new date for commencement of federal government’s treasonable felony charge levied against the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) Nnamdi Kanu and other members of his organization.
The Biafra-secession agitating group had earlier accused federal prosecutors of a sinister plot to manufacture fresh incriminating evidence to nail its leader and to perpetually keep him in custody.
Federal government is prosecuting Kanu alongside three other pro-Biafra agitators- Chidiebere Onwudiwe, Benjamin Madubugwu and David Nwawuisi. Their trial which was originally billed to commence on July 11, was shifted till October following a consideration that the high court han
dling the case has embarked on its annual vacation. The group in a statement signed by its spokesperson, Emma Powerful, also accused government, especially the judiciary of playing politics with the trail of its leader and three others detained in Kuje Prison. “All the Federal Government and her security operatives especially the DSS are doing is abducting and torturing those suspected to be IPOB members to write an incriminating and confessional statements against our leader Mazi Nnamdi Kanu and IPOB members in order to establish a case without prove,” it alleged.
The group, however, urged government “to release Bright Chimezie who have been granted bail by the court of competent jurisdiction and others still in detention centers across the country because they committed no crime against Nigeria state or any human being.”
The prosecution had in the charge sheet with registration number FHC/ABJ/ CR/383/2015, alleged that Mr. Kanu, who claimed to be “the leader of IPOB, conspired with his co-defendants and others now at large, on diverse dates in 2014 and 2915, in Nigeria and London, to broadcast on Radio Biafra monitored in Enugu and other areas, preparations for states in the South-East and South-South zones and other communities in Kogi and Benue states, to secede from the Federal Republic of Nigeria, with a view to constituting same into a Republic of Biafra.”
Kanu who was arrested by security operatives upon his arrival to Nigeria from the United Kingdom on October 14, 2015, and his IPOB comrades were alleged to have committed an offence punishable under section 41(c) of the Criminal Code Act, CAP. C38 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004.
Though trial Justice Binta Nyako had in a ruling on April 25 released Kanu on bail, based on health ground after he had spent about 19 months in detention, his co-defendants remained in prison custody.
The IPOB leader was compelled to produce three sureties, including “a jewish leader” and a “highly placed person of Igbo extraction”, who all deposited N100million each before he was granted temporary freedom by the court.
As part of his conditions for bail, Kanu was expressly barred by the court from attending any rally or granting any form of interview. “I must stress it here that the defendant must not attend any rally. He must not be in a crowd exceeding 10 persons”, the Judge warned.
The trail judge also held that Kanu must sign an undertakento make himself available for trial at all times. He was further ordered to surrender his Nigerian and British international passports, even as the court compelled FG to return to him, his wedding ring and reading glasses.
Nevertheless, Kanu’s co-defendants were denied bail by the court which described charges against them as “very serious”. Justice Nyako said the fact that she earlier struck out terrorism charges FG slammed against the defendants did not water-down seriousness of the charge of treasonable felony against them. Sourcehttps://orientdailynews.com/court-shifts-nnamdi-kanu-trial-oct-17/lalasticlala, mynd44, seun 
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