{"id":46032,"date":"2016-01-29T16:21:18","date_gmt":"2016-01-29T15:21:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/?p=46032"},"modified":"2016-01-29T16:21:18","modified_gmt":"2016-01-29T15:21:18","slug":"court-denies-nnamdi-kanu-bail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/news\/court-denies-nnamdi-kanu-bail\/","title":{"rendered":"Court denies Nnamdi Kanu \u00a0bail"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) was today denied bail by Justice John Tsoho of the Federal High Court, Abuja , his reason, he is a threat to national security.<\/div>\n
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He held that if released Kanu might commit the same offence again, and that there was a probability that he might jump bail because he possessed dual citizenship.\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
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He therefore ruled that Kanu be remanded in prison custody, and ordered an accelerated hearing of the case.\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
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Tsoho had fixed Friday for ruling on Kanu\u2019s bail application which was argued on Monday.<\/div>\n
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Arguing for Kanu\u2019s release, Nnoruka Udechukwu, senior advocate of Nigeria (SAN), urged the court to release him, stating that the offence he was alleged to have committed was a bailable one.<\/div>\n
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Udechukwu argued that the Criminal Justice Act, 2015, stipulated bail for anyone not accused of a capital offence.<\/div>\n
\nHe said that the offence of which Kanu was accused was a \u201ccivil rights\u201d issue, adding that the right to agitate is guaranteed in a democracy. \u201cThe right to agitate is inherent in a democracy. People must not be denied of their rights to protest by way of being kept in custody,\u201d he said. \u201cIf national security was a ground to throw people into detention the Criminal Justice Act would have said so.\u201d Making his own submission, Mohammed Diri, counsel to the federal government, said he was \u201cseriously opposed to this application.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

He argued that the application did not fulfil certain conditions spelt out in section 162 of the Criminal Justice Act, 2015. Diri said that Kanu might jump bail if released because according to his statement to the Department of State Services (DSS) he is a British citizen. \u201cHe sneaked into this country. He didn\u2019t enter the country the proper way. He may sneak out,\u201d he said. \u201cI urge this court to refuse this application and order for accelerated hearing.\u201d Kanu alongside Benjamin Madubugwu and David Nwawuisi is facing a six-count charge of treasonable felony. Count one of the charges reads:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThat you, Nnamdi Kanu and other unknown persons now at large in London, United Kingdom, between the year 2014 and September 2015, with intention to levy war against Nigeria in order tto force the president to change his measures of being the president of the federation, head of state and commander-in-chief of the armed forces of the federation as defined in section 3 of the constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended) by doing an act wit: Broadcast on Radio Biafra monitored by NBC for your preparations for the states in the southeast geo-political zone, south-south geo-political zone, the Igala community of Kogi and Idoma to secede from the federal republic of Nigeria and form themselves into a republic of Biafra, and thereby committed an offence punishable under section 41 (C) of the criminal code act, CAP C38 laws of the federation of Nigeria, 2004.\u201d On December 23, 2015, he had refused to take his plea before Ahmed Mohammed, justice of the federal high court, Abuja, citing lack of confidence in the court.<\/span><\/p>\n

This was after Adeniyi Ademola, another justice of the federal high court, Abuja, ordered the DSS to release him unconditionally, and after a chief magistrate court discharged and acquitted him of charges of criminal intimidation and management of an unlawful society.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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by jenny downing<\/span> on<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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