The Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, on Monday, dismissed the fresh application the detained leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Nnamdi Kanu filed to be released on bail, pending the determination of the treasonable felony charge the Federal Government preferred against him.
The application was dismissed on a day the defendant adduced reasons why he could not be tried before any court in the country.
Kanu, who addressed the court from the dock, denied the allegation that he jumped the bail that was previously granted to him, insisting that he only escaped an attempt to assassinate him.
According to the defendant, the government acted in breach of international treaties it entered into, when it forcefully arrested him in Kenya and rendered him back to the country for the continuation of his trial.
Earlier before he addressed the court, trial Justice Binta Nyako had in her ruling, said she was not minded to exercise her discretion in favour of the defendant whom she said jumped the initial bail the court granted to him.
Justice Nyako noted that those that stood surety for the defendant had after he escaped from the country, approached the court and applied to be discharged from the case.
She held that the sureties, in their applications, claimed that they were not aware of the whereabouts of the defendant, a situation that forced the court to order the forfeiture of N100million each of them deposited as bail bonds.
Besides, Justice Nyako held that having refused Kanu’s request for bail on several occasions, the only option available to him was to take the matter before the appellate court.
She further refused Kanu’s request to be either transferred to prison custody or be placed on a House Arrest.
However, the court ordered the Department of State Services, DSS, to always grant Kanu access to his team of lawyers, not exceeding five persons on every visiting day.
It ordered that Kanu must be given “a clean place” to consult with his lawyers at the DSS detention facility, adding that he must also be granted access to a doctor of his choice.
Justice Nyako warned that any attempt by Kanu’s legal team to file similar applications before the court would be regarded as a gross abuse of the judicial process.
“You have an option of appeal, please exercise your right of appeal,” the trial judge added.
The embattled IPOB leader who was visibly irked by the decision of the court to deny him bail, vented his anger on the lead counsel that appeared for the government, Chief Adegboyega Awomolo, SAN, labelling him a terrorist.
Kanu, who is answering to a seven-count treasonable felony charge, said he was surprised that the senior lawyer, who is currently the Chairman of the Nigeria Body of Benchers, could not advise the government properly.
He insisted that going by the provision of the Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022, he could no longer be tried since Nigeria breached international treaties that forbade the forceful arrest and rendition he was subjected to.
He argued that both the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court, in their various decisions, declared his forceful rendition from Kenya as an act of illegality.
Kanu, who kept waving a bunch of law books he entered the dock with, said: “My lord, you said in your earlier ruling that you will not grant me bail until you make a determination about the reason for my disappearance. But you have not done so.
