Biafra: High Court charge Nnamdi Kanu to Kuje Prison

leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) Nnamdi Kanu

A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has ordered that the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) Nnamdi Kanu be remanded in Kuje prison pending his trial for treason.

Justice John Tsoho gave the order after listening to Mohammed Diri, counsel to the Department of State Services (DSS), and Chuks Muoma (SAN), counsel to Kanu. Muoma had argued that the accused person be remanded in prison custody away from the cell of the DSS. He said that his client had been kept incommunicado in the custody of the DSS for three months. He therefore asked the court to send the accused person to prison so that his family could have access to him. Diri, however, prayed the court to keep Kanu in the custody of the DSS for security reasons. But the judge ruled that the defendant be kept in the custody of the Nigeria Prison Service, Kuje. Kanu arrived at the court a few minutes past 9am looking unkempt. On December 23, 2015, he had refused to take his plea before Ahmed Mohammed, justice of the federal high court, Abuja, citing lack of confidence in the court. This was after Adeniyi Ademola, another justice of the federal high court, Abuja, ordered the DSS to release him unconditionally, and after a chief magistrate court discharged and acquitted of charges of criminal intimidation and ownership of unlawful society.