Justice Binta Nyako, of the Federal High Court, Abuja, on Wednesday
struck out six of the 11 charges brought against detained leader of the
Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Nnamdi Kanu, by the federal
government.
The dismissed charges bordered on “ownership of
unlawful society, illegal importation of radio transmitters and
researching on how to make improvised explosive devices”.
Justice
Nyako, in a ruling, held that the charges were not supported by the
proof of evidence adduced against the defendants by the prosecution. She
held that was no evidence before the court to prove that IPOB, which
was allegedly managed by the defendants, was an unlawful society.
The
court however sustained five other charges against Kanu and three other
pro-Biafra agitators namely: Chidiebere Onwudiwe, Benjamin Madubugwu
and David Nwawuisi. They however entered a fresh plea of not guilty to
the sustained charges.
The
charges are based on conspiracy, treasonable felony, publication of
defamatory matter and Kanu’s alleged importation of goods contrary and
punishable under section 47(2) (a) of the Customs and Excise Management
Act, Cap C45, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004.
In count
three of the remaining charges, the federal government alleged that Kanu
had in a broadcast he made in London on April 28, 2015, through Radio
Biafra, referred to President Muhammadu Buhari as “a paedophile, a
terrorist, an idiot and an embodiment of evil”.
Meanwhile, the court has fixed March 20 and 21 to commence full-blown trial of the defendants.
It
would be recalled that a former governor of the Central Bank of
Nigeria, CBN, Chukwuma Soludo; a professor of Economics, Pat Utomi, and
some Igbo leaders on Tuesday called for the immediate release of Kanu.
Describing
the trial of the detained leaders of IPOB as persecution, they called
on the federal government to release him for the sake of engineering a
new Nigeria.
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