The trial of the leader of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, has been adjourned to the 19th and 20th of January 2022.
His means that the Biafra separatist will spend the rest of 2021, including the Christmas period, and the New Year in government custody.
Kanu is being tried for alleged treason amid other charges to which he has pleaded ‘not guilty’.
Kanu had, this morning, informed Justice Binta Nyako that the Department of State Services (DSS) operatives refused to grant his lawyer access to the court room.
DSS brought Kanu into the courtroom at 9:52am for his third court appearance since June when the security agents repatriated him to Nigeria from Kenya.
Some groups were seen outside the court protesting the death of Ahmed Gulak, a late politician whose death Nigerian government officials blamed on IPOB’s alleged terrorism.
Kanu is facing a seven-count amended treasonable felony charge the Federal Government preferred against him.
The Nigerian government had in the amended charge marked FHC/ABJ/CR/383/2015, which was signed by a team of government lawyers led by the Director, Public Prosecution of the Federation, Mr. M. B. Abubakar, alleged that Kanu had in furtherance of an act of terrorism, issued a deadly threat that anyone that flouted his sit-at-home order should write his or her will.
The Nigerian government alleged that as a result of Kanu’s directive, banks, schools, markets, shopping malls, fuel stations were not opened for businesses, with vehicular movements grounded in the South East region of the country.
It said the action amounted to an offence contrary to and punishable under 1(2) (b) of the Terrorism Prevention Amendment Act, 2013.
The Nigerian government equally lined up five witnesses to testify in the matter, among whom are officials of the DSS and one Ronald S. who was identified as the manager of a hotel in Lagos State.
Via BBC Pidgin and Sahara Reporters
