BY Fredrick Nwabufo
Nnamdi Kanu, director of Radio Biafra and leader of the Independent People of Biafra (IPOB), is still in the custody of the Department of State Services (DSS).
On Thursday, Adeniyi Ademola, a justice of the federal high court, Abuja, ordered the DSS to release Kanu immediately.
But Vincent Obetta, Kanu’s lawyer, told TheCable on Friday that he is 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 said.
“Before 1pm, we will finish the paper work, and then we will go to the SSS.”
Ademola held that the continued detention of Kanu by the DSS was unlawful.
He said Kanu was yet to be charged by the DSS on suspicion of terrorism, adding that, perhaps, the secret police lacked the required material to prosecute him.
He 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.
“I order that the applicant be released unconditionally,” Ademola ruled.
Shuaibu Usman of the chief magistrate court, Wuse zone 2, Abuja, had also on Wednesday 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.
The service has held Kanu for at least 90 days despite an order of the magistrate court granting him bail in October.
A wave of protests, engineered by IPOB, had swept through the southeast a few days ago owing to the continued detention of Kanu.
IPOB is demanding an immediate and unconditional release of its leader.
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