The Federal High Court in Abuja on Friday reduced to seven from 15 the number of treason charges preferred by the Federal Government against Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra.
The trial Judge, Justice Binta Nyako discharged the IPOB leader of the eight charges as she rued on a preliminary objection filed Kanu.
Justice Nyako held that the affected counts do not disclose any offence against Kanu.
“In this instant preliminary objection application, I have read the counts and come to the conclusion that counts six, seven, eight, nine, 10, 11, 12, and 14 have not disclosed any offence against the defendant.
“‘Counts one, two, three, four, five, eight, and 15 show some allegations, which the defendant has to answer.
“The court shall proceed to try the defendant on those counts,” Justice Nyako said.
Nyako thereafter ordered that counts six, seven, nine, 10, 11, 12 13 and 14 should be struck out.
She further ruled that the order proscribing IPOB as a terror group still subsisted until it was vacated since the issue was still on appeal.
She dismissed the argument of Chief Mike Ozekhome, SAN, counsel for Kanu, that whether IPOB was a terrorist organisation under the Nigerian law or not was still a subject of the appeal.
On Kanu’s bail plea, the judge directed counsel to the parties to present their arguments.
Reports of the reduction of charges against Kanu led to jubilation in Owerri, the Imo State capital. Imo has become the hotbed of the struggle for the sovereign state of Biafra in Southeastern Nigeria.
Imo has witnessed scores of murders and attacks on security agents and facilities, including police stations, officers, and other targets.
Meanwhile, the reduction in the charges against Kanu came as the Southeast witnessed attacks by the group euphemistically now known as Unknown gunmen. The group was reported to have attacked soldiers in Aba, the commercial capital of Abia State, burning the military tank in which the soldiers were moving.
Another group of unknown gunmen was reported to have attacked the headquarters of Aguata Local Government Area of Anambra State, where the Governor, Prof Charles Soludo, hails from.
The attack came less than a week after the governor offered an amnesty to the IPOB members in the state, asking them to drop their weapons and embrace peace.
The group has reportedly rejected the offer.
