A Magistrate Court sitting in Abuja has discharged the Director of
Radio Biafra and Leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB),
Nnamdi Kanu, on all counts of criminal conspiracy and ownership of an
unlawful society brought against him by the federal government.
The Chief Magistrate of Wuse zone 2, Abuja, Shuaibu Usman struck out
the case the the Department of State Services (DSS) had dropped the
charges against Kanu, the judge ruled: “The accused person is hereby
discharged and the case struck out.”
The government through its agent, the DSS, had elected to withdraw the
case at the lower court for a higher court, which has jurisdiction to
entertain charges bordering on terrorism, to take over.
Usman was scheduled to deliver judgment on the application of the DSS
on December 1, but he put it off until December 16.
The DSS has held Kanu for at least 90 days despite an order of the
magistrate court granting him bail in October.
After the lower court granted him bail, the DSS got an order of the
federal high court, Abuja, to keep the leader of IPOB in detention.
However, his lawyer, Vincent Obetta, filed a counter application,
seeking bail for the accused person.
Meanwhile, Justice of the Federal High Court, Abuja, Adeniyi Ademola,
is expected to rule on the bail application on Thursday.
Since, the arrest and detention of Kanu by Nigeria’s secret Police, in
Lagos, on Saturday, October 17, wave of protests, engineered by IPOB,
as well as members of the Movement for the Actualization of Sovereign
State of Biafra (MASSOB) had swept through the South-East and parts of
the South-South, demanding an immediate and unconditional release of
Kanu.