… hearing adjourned to Feb. 16
Nnamdi Kanu, the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra on Wednesday pleaded not guilty to the fresh amended 15-count terrorism charge that the Federal Government preferred against him.
Kanu, at the resumed hearing of the case brought against him by the government, said he was innocent of all the allegations brought against him.
He objected to the commencement of the trial, while the trial Judge, Justice Binta Nyako, adjuourned the case to February 16, 2022.
On Monday, the government added eight fresh charges on Kanu, raising the number of charges against to 15. But speaking from the dock on Wednesday, Kanu said that some counts in the amended charge were actually similar.
This was as the lead prosecution counsel, Mr. Shuaibu Labaran, announced his readiness to start the trial, informing the court that he had two witnesses to testify against Kanu.
Sustaining the objection to the trial, Chief Mike Ozekhome, SAN, who took over on Tuesday as Kanu’s lead counsel, informed the court that on Tuesday he had filed a 43-paged Preliminary Objection for the charge to be quashed and struck out without the matter proceeding to trial.
“We are further asking that the Defendant should be discharged and acquitted as there is nothing in this charge. It has no basis at all,” he said.
“We also have a motion requesting the court to grant bail to the Defendant”, Ozekhome added.
Kanu has been in detention since he was arrested in Kenya and brought back to Nigeria in July last year.
IPOB is fighting for the independence of Nigeria’s South East region.
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