The leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) will remain in the custody of the Department of State Services (DSS) as a federal high court in Abuja dismissed his fresh bail application....READ FULL ARTICLE

The Judge on Monday said that the same request had been brought before her by Kanu but was dismissed for want of merit.

In a ruling on Kanu’s request, Justice Nyako said that she found as a fact that Kanu jumped the bail earlier granted him and escaped out of the country.

The Judge also held that the sureties who stood for him in the earlier bail had applied to be discharged and had been discharged on the ground that they could not locate Kanu and did not know his whereabouts.

Justice Nyako said that the only option left for Kanu was to go to the Court of Appeal and exercise his right of appeal.

The Judge disagreed with Kanu’s lead counsel that the Supreme Court held that the earlier bail granted him ought not to have been revoked, adding that she had perused the Supreme Court judgment copy and did not see the claim of the lawyer.

Kanu is standing trial on a seven-count charge bordering on treasonable felony as preferred against him by the federal government.

It will be recalled that Kanu was first arrested in Lagos on October 14, 2015, upon his return to the country from the United Kingdom.

Justice Nyako had on April 25, 2017, granted him bail on health grounds after he had spent about 18 months in detention.

Upon the perfection of the bail conditions, he was on April 28, 2017, released from the Kuje prison.

However, midway into the trial, the IPOB leader escaped from the country after soldiers invaded his country home at Afara Ukwu Ibeku in Umuahia, Abia State, an operation that led to the deaths of some of his followers.

Kanu was later re-arrested in Kenya on June 19, 2021, and extraordinarily renditioned back to the country by security agents on June 27, 2021.

Following the development, the trial court, on June 29, 2021, remanded him in custody of DSS, where he remained till date.

On April 8, 2022, the court struck out eight out of the 15-count charges that FG preferred against him on the premise that they lacked substance.

Likewise, the Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal, on October 13, 2022, ordered Kanu’s immediate release from detention even as it quashed the charge against him.

The appellate court said it was satisfied that FG flagrantly violated all known laws when it forcefully rendered Kanu from Kenya to the country for the continuation of his trial.

It held that such arbitrary use of power by the Nigerian government divested the trial court of jurisdiction to further try the appellant.

Dissatisfied with the decision, FG took the matter before the Supreme Court, even as it persuaded the appellate court to suspend the execution of the judgment, pending the determination of its appeal.

While deciding the appeal, the Supreme Court, on December 15, 2023, vacated the judgment of the appellate court and gave FG the nod to try the IPOB leader on the subsisting seven-count charge….READ FULL ARTICLE