Court To Rule On Nnamdi Kanu’s Bail Application On April 25

By Oladipupo Mojeed

The Federal High Court in Abuja has fixed April 25 to decide whether or not the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, should be released on bail pending his trial.

Also, the trial judge,  Justice Binta Nyako equally adjourned the ruling on separate bail applications by three other pro-Biafra agitators, Chidiebere Onwudiwe, Benjamin Madubugwu and David Nwawuisi, who are facing trial with Kanu.

Answering to a five-count criminal charge the Federal Government preferred against them, the defendants through their respective lawyers prayed the court to grant them bail, contending that all the allegations FG levelled against them were bailable offences.

Charges Against Kanu And Others

Kanu’s lawyer, Ifeanyi Ejiofor, stressed that the court had in a ruling on March 1, struck out six out of eleven charges the FG slammed against the defendants.

He noted that charges that were struck out by the court bordered on criminal conspiracy and the alleged involvement of the defendants in acts of terrorism.

According to Ejiofor, after the said charges have been expunged by the court, there was no basis for both Kanu and the other defendants to still remain in prison custody.

His argument was adopted by counsel to all the other defendants, who maintained that going by the pending charges, they no longer posed security threats to warrant their continued detention.

Meanwhile, Justice Nyako also fixed April 6 to determine the merit of the application by the defendants, asking her to vary the order that gave FG the nod to shield identities of all the witnesses billed to testify against them.

The trial Judge not only okayed the witnesses to testify behind a screen, she also granted an order permitting them to use pseudo-names. Though the court agreed to mask the witnesses from the public, it held that the defendants and their lawyers would be allowed to see them.

No secret trial

The defendants were dissatisfied with the decision and applied for a review of the ruling, They said they would not submit themselves to a secret trial.

Kanu had insisted that he would want the public and members of the press to be allowed to see faces of those testifying against him.

“I was accused in public and I must be tried in public”, he said.