A
Federal High Court in Abuja has ordered the Department of State Services
to immediately take Nnamdi Kanu to prisons and has rejected the DSS
request to remand Kanu in their custody.
IPOB Leader, Nnamdi Kanu
A Federal High Court in Abuja has ordered that the leader of the
Indigenous People of Biafra and founder of Radio Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu
should be removed from Department of State Security Custody and be taken
to prison.
The judge, in ordering the remand of the accused persons in prison,
overruled the request by the Director of Public Prosecutions, Mr.
Mohammed Diri, for an order further remanding the accused persons in the
custody of the DSS.
The DSS had requested that the court grant its wish by granting it
more days to further detain Nnamdi Kanu in their custody. However, the
court thought it out of order considering that Kanu had spend more than 3
months in their custody.
The order came as a relief to the defence team, led on Wednesday by
Mr. Chuks Mouoma (SAN), who had complained that the accused persons had
been denied access to their families and lawyers since their arrest by
the DSS on October 14, 2015.
A Magistrate’s Court, in Wuse Zone 2, Abuja, had earlier granted
bail to Kanu and also made similar order, directing the DSS to release
Kanu to the prison authorities.
Also, Justice Adeniyi Ademola of the same Federal High Court in
Abuja had, on December 17, 2015, granted an unconditional bail to Kanu
from the DSS custody.
But rather than release the IPOB leader, the Federal Government
filed the fresh six counts, including treasonable felony, against the
three accused persons barely 24 hours after Justice Ademola made the
latest order.
On December 23, 2015, when Kanu and the two co-accused persons were
produced in court for arraignment, the IPOB leader refused to take his
plea due to what he called his lack of confidence in the presiding
judge, Justice Ahmed Mohammed.
The case was later reassigned to Justice Tsoho.
After the accused persons pleaded not guilty to the six counts on
Wednesday, Diri urged the court to order that Kanu be further remanded
in the DSS custody for ease of conveying him to court, considering the
security risk involved in bringing him to court from a farther location
like the Kuje Prison.
But Muouma opposed the request, insisting that the “issue of
convenience”, raised by the prosecution, could not override the position
of the law.
He said, “The DPP himself has said this morning that
investigation into the case has been completed. So, why do you still
have to keep him?. The complainant, the DSS, cannot be the judge in its
own case. The federal prison is the appropriate neutral party to keep an
accused person.
“Once a defendant has been charged and arraigned, the proper
and constitutional place of custody for remand is the prison. That is
the age-long procedure we are familiar with.”
The judge, in his ruling, dismissed the prosecution’s request and
upheld the argument by the defence lawyer that the law only permitted
that accused person, who had taken his plea, could only be remanded in
prison.
The judge has fixed Monday, January 25, 2015, for the hearing of the bail application filed on behalf of the accused persons.
