BY Fredrick Nwabufo
The federal government has filed a fresh five-count charge of treasonable felony against Nnamdi Kanu, director of Radio Biafra and leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).
Vincent Obetta, Kanu’s lawyer, told TheCable on Tuesday that the Department of State Services (DSS) served him a notice of the fresh charge as he went there to serve the agency a court order stipulating a release of his client unconditionally.
He said the DSS ought to have complied with the order of the court – in the absence of an appeal –before filing a fresh suit against Kanu.
“This case is not Nnamdi Kanu’s case; it is a case of rule of law. The law is very simple. When there is an order of court which is against you, and you did not appeal against that order court, you have to obey whether you are an individual or an institution of the federal government,” he said.
On Thursday, Adeniyi Ademola, a justice of the federal high court, Abuja, ordered the DSS to release Kanu “unconditionally”.
A day after the ruling, Obetta told TheCable that he was still in the process of getting his client out.
“There is nothing that will hold him back, except the government wants to be funny again,” he had said. “Before 1pm, we will finish the paper work, and then we will go to the SSS.”
In his ruling, Ademola held that the continued detention of Kanu by the DSS was unlawful, since Kanu was yet to be charged on suspicion of terrorism.
He added that, perhaps, the secret police lacked the required material to prosecute him and emphasised that the detention-without charge- of the IPOB leader from October to December was contrary to the provisions of the constitution.
He therefore set aside an earlier order granting the DSS leave to hold him for 90 days.
Shuaibu Usman of the chief magistrate court, Wuse zone 2, Abuja, had also discharged Kanu, on all counts of “criminal conspiracy, intimidation and leading an unlawful society brought against him by the federal government”.
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.
In recent times, the continued detention of Kanu has led to a wave of protests, engineered by IPOB, across the southeast.
IPOB is demanding an immediate and unconditional release of its leader.
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