BY Fredrick Nwabufo
Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and director of Radio Biafra, says Nigeria will collapse when he gives his testimony in court.
Kanu, who spoke from the dock, said this in protest of Justice Binta Nyako’s decision to shield witnesses that would testify against him at her court.
“Buhari went on national television to accuse me in public and he wants to try me in secret. I will not allow myself to be subjected to this kind of trial,” he said.
“By the time I am through with my testimony there will be no Nigeria. What kind of secret trial? This is not a Sharia Court but common law court.”
On December 1, Nyako had denied Kanu and other accused persons – Chidiebere Onwudiwe, David Nwawuisi and Benjamin Nmadubugwu – bail, citing the severity of their offence as the reason for her decision.
On that day, Labaran Shuaibu, counsel to the federal government and prosecutor, asked the court for an order to mask the witnesses who would testify against the defendants.
He said the lives of his witnesses might be in danger if their identities were not concealed.
But Maxwell Okpara, one of Kanu’s lawyers, told the court then that the government had lined up foreigners, whose identities it wanted to conceal, as witnesses.
“My lord, we have uncovered their plan to bring Ghanaians and people from Cameroon to appear in this court to testify against the defendants,” he had said.
“We as Nigerians will resist that plot. It cannot work. That is why they are insisting that they should testify behind screen. That plot has failed, it will not work.”
On Tuesday, Nyako, a judge of the federal high court, Abuja, granted the request of the government to shield witnesses.
Kanu is facing 11-counts of treason and terrorism brought against him by the government.
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