FG fails to re-arraign Kanu, as hearing shifts to Supreme Court

The detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Nnamdi Kanu, on Monday, protested his planned re-arraignment on a fresh seven-count terrorism charge the Federal Government preferred against him.

Kanu, who has been in custody of the Department of State Service, DSS, for over 14 months following his re-arrest in Kenya, accused FG of abusing the judicial process, vowing not to present himself for fresh trial, pending when the Court of Appeal judgement that ordered his release from detention, is complied with.

It will be recalled that the appellate court in Abuja had in a judgement it delivered on October 13, quashed the entire 15-count charge FG entered against the IPOB leader.

The appellate court faulted the manner Kanu was arrested and extra-ordinarily rendered back to the country for continuation of his trial.

It held that FG had in the process of the extraordinary rendition, violated all known laws and international conventions, stressing that such action stripped the trial court off the jurisdiction to resume further proceedings on the charge Kanu was facing before he escaped from the country.

It, therefore, discharged the IPOB leader of all the allegations against him.

Meanwhile, Vanguard had exclusively reported that though FG had since gone to the Supreme Court to set-aside the Appeal Court judgement that quashed the charge against Kanu, it subsequently entered a new charge against him.

While the old charge was marked FHC/ABJ/CR/383/2015, the new charge, which was slated in the causelist of the court for Kanu to enter his fresh plea, was marked FHC/ABJ/CR/ 484/ 2022.W

hen the case was called up on Monday, a team of government prosecutors led by the Director of Public Prosecution of the Federation, DPPF, Mr. M.B. Abubakar, told trial Justice Binta Nyako that the IPOB leader declined to be brought before the court for arraignment.

Abubakar, who responded to an enquiry from the judge about why Kanu was not present in court, said he was notified that the defendant refused to follow DSS operatives that wanted to produce him before the court.

He said: “My lord, I understand that the defendant declined to come to court today”.

In his further explanation, a lawyer from the DSS, Mr. I. Awo, told the court that the IPOB leader said he would not make himself available for a fresh trial until the judgement that ordered his release is obeyed.

“My lord, as at last week, the defendant was intimated of this sitting and he did not object.

“However, when I called the office this morning, I was informed that the defendant woke up and declined to come to court.

“All entreaties and pleas were made but he refused to come to court”, Awo added.

On his part, Kanu’s lead counsel, Chief Mike Ozekhome, SAN, described the allegation that his client refused to appear in court as “very strange”.

“My lord, this is totally strange to me because this is a person that has never hidden his intention to always be in court.

“In fact, even in processes we filed at both the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court, the defendant said he would want to be present in court for hearing of all the matters”, Ozekhome, SAN, added.

He further notified the trial judge about the Court of Appeal verdict that not only quashed the charge against Kanu, but also barred FG from prosecuting him over the same set of allegations.

Ozekhome argued that since both FG and his client have lodged separate appeals at the Supreme Court, he said it was better for the trial judge to hands-off the planned re-arraignment and await the decision of the apex court.

Besides, he told the court that his client was yet to be served with a copy of the fresh charge FG entered against him.

“We have not even been served with this charge. We only read about it on the social media.

“It was this morning that we discovered that it has been listed on the cause list and I thought that my learned friend will stand up and say that in view of the subsisting Appeal Court judgement, that he is withdrawing it.

“We are surprised because this an abuse of court process”, Ozekhome stated.

In his brief response, the DPPF, Mr. Abubakar, said he was not opposed to an adjournment to enable the Supreme Court to determine the appeals pending before it.

Consequently, trial Justice Nyako in a brief ruling, said she was minded to adjourn further proceedings in the case sine-die (indefinitely) to await the outcome of the pending appeals.

While FG is in its appeal, seeking to set-aside the judgement that discharged Kanu, on the other hand, the IPOB leader went to the apex court to challenge the decision of the appellate court to suspend the execution of its verdict that ordered his release from detention.

Justice Nyako equally adjourned a fundamental right enforcement suit Kanu filed to challenge his continued detention which described as illegal, unconstitutional.

Kanu is among other things, demanding N100billion from FG as compensation for the gross abuse of his fundamental rights, as well as an apology to be tendered to him through two national dailies.

(Vanguard)