NIGERIAN COURTS AND BRITISH GOVERNMENT CAN'T SAVE YOU--DSS THREATENS NNAMDI KANU
Published By Family Writers
Detained leader of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) and Director of Biafra Radio, Dr Nnamdi Kanu, has said that state security officials told him that the courts could not save him. Kanu said through one of his lawyers, Barrister Ifeanyi Ejiofor, that operatives of the Department of State Security (DSS) told him while he was in their custody that both the courts in Nigeria and the British government cannot save him in his bid to regain his freedom.
Kanu, who is facing a six-count treason charge, asserted that he is a victim of persecution by the Federal Government and its agents which have continued to violate his human rights through his prolonged incarceration. Through one of his lawyers, the IPOB leader expressed his readiness to face trial, adding that what he wants is a “fair trial and not persecution.” In a statement by the counsel, Mr. Ejiofor, which was made available to The AUTHORITY, Kanu said he was wrongly arrested and detained. Kanu has already filed a suit before the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Court of Justice against the violation of his rights. In the fundamental enforcement rights suit he filed before the ECOWAS Court, Kanu prayed for requisite redress under the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and other International Conventions to which Nigeria is a signatory.
He said: “We were reliably informed by Nnamdi Kanu that his persecutors told him in the course of their interrogation that even the British government cannot secure his freedom, as the courts should go ahead and make orders they like but none would be obeyed,” Ejiofor said.
It was the submissions of his counsel that the unlawful detention of his client from October 14, 2015 till January 20, 2016, without any lawful order of the court, and in flagrant disobedience of orders of courts of competent jurisdiction, all directing for his unconstitutional release and discharge, amounted to a gross violation of his fundamental human rights.
Ejiofor, who chronicled all the alleged breaches of Kanu’s fundamental human rights, recounted that the Chief Magistrates’ Court in Abuja specified in the First Information Report originally filed against him, had discharged his client of all bogus and frivolous allegations against him but “the Department of State Security that dragged him to court refused to obey the orders of the same court”.
According to the statement: “Recall that on December 29, 2015, during the Presidential Media Chat, the President told the whole world that Nnamdi Kanu cannot be granted bail, alleging that he came into the country without a valid travelling passport. This pronouncement was roundly condemned by both local and international commentators. His pronouncement was viewed as a clear usurpation of the functions and powers of the judiciary.
“Though very regrettable and extremely unfortunate, Nnamdi Kanu was refused bail on January 29, 2016. In refusing him and other defendants bail, the court also cited the facts of his possession of dual passports as a flight risk, and as such held that he cannot be granted bail,” he said.
This position, according to Ejiofor “was in keeping in line with the pronouncement of the President of the Federal Republic if Nigeria in his media chat on December 29, 2015. It is a case of a witch crying in the night and a baby dying in the morning.
“The same Kanu who has been announced to the whole world to have sneaked into the country without a valid passport, now has his two valid passports (British and Nigerian) seized by the operatives of the DSS. “A formal application to secure the release of these two passports was made in open court by Nnamdi Kanu’s defence team in February 9, 2016, which the learned trial judge in his ruling delivered on that same day refused to grant. This is a clear indication that Nnamdi Kanu came into the country with valid travelling passports contrary to the erroneous views expressed at the media chat.”
The AUTHORITY recalls that Justice John Tsoho had on January 29, denied bail to Kanu and two other pro-Biafra agitators, Benjamin Madubugwu and David Nwawuisi, who are facing trial with him. The trio are answering to a six-count treason charge that was preferred against them by the federal government.
Kanu, who was hitherto the Director of Radio Biafra and Television, has been in detention since October 14, 2015, when he was arrested by security operatives upon his arrival to Nigeria from his base in the United Kingdom. The defendants were in the charge that was signed by the Director of Public Prosecution, DPP, Mr. Mohammed Diri, alleged to have committed treasonable felony, an offence punishable under Section 41(C) of the Criminal Code Act, CAP C38 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria.
FG alleged that they were the ones managing the affairs of IPOB which it described as “an unlawful society”. Specifically, Kanu was alleged to have illegally smuggled radio transmitters into Nigeria, which he used to disseminate “hate broadcasts”, encouraging the “secession of the Republic of Biafra”, from Nigeria.
However, the accused persons pleaded not guilty to the charge on January 20, even as the court ordered their remand at Kuje Prison in Abuja.
Source
Published By Family Writers
Kanu, who is facing a six-count treason charge, asserted that he is a victim of persecution by the Federal Government and its agents which have continued to violate his human rights through his prolonged incarceration. Through one of his lawyers, the IPOB leader expressed his readiness to face trial, adding that what he wants is a “fair trial and not persecution.” In a statement by the counsel, Mr. Ejiofor, which was made available to The AUTHORITY, Kanu said he was wrongly arrested and detained. Kanu has already filed a suit before the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Court of Justice against the violation of his rights. In the fundamental enforcement rights suit he filed before the ECOWAS Court, Kanu prayed for requisite redress under the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and other International Conventions to which Nigeria is a signatory.
He said: “We were reliably informed by Nnamdi Kanu that his persecutors told him in the course of their interrogation that even the British government cannot secure his freedom, as the courts should go ahead and make orders they like but none would be obeyed,” Ejiofor said.
It was the submissions of his counsel that the unlawful detention of his client from October 14, 2015 till January 20, 2016, without any lawful order of the court, and in flagrant disobedience of orders of courts of competent jurisdiction, all directing for his unconstitutional release and discharge, amounted to a gross violation of his fundamental human rights.
Ejiofor, who chronicled all the alleged breaches of Kanu’s fundamental human rights, recounted that the Chief Magistrates’ Court in Abuja specified in the First Information Report originally filed against him, had discharged his client of all bogus and frivolous allegations against him but “the Department of State Security that dragged him to court refused to obey the orders of the same court”.
According to the statement: “Recall that on December 29, 2015, during the Presidential Media Chat, the President told the whole world that Nnamdi Kanu cannot be granted bail, alleging that he came into the country without a valid travelling passport. This pronouncement was roundly condemned by both local and international commentators. His pronouncement was viewed as a clear usurpation of the functions and powers of the judiciary.
“Though very regrettable and extremely unfortunate, Nnamdi Kanu was refused bail on January 29, 2016. In refusing him and other defendants bail, the court also cited the facts of his possession of dual passports as a flight risk, and as such held that he cannot be granted bail,” he said.
This position, according to Ejiofor “was in keeping in line with the pronouncement of the President of the Federal Republic if Nigeria in his media chat on December 29, 2015. It is a case of a witch crying in the night and a baby dying in the morning.
“The same Kanu who has been announced to the whole world to have sneaked into the country without a valid passport, now has his two valid passports (British and Nigerian) seized by the operatives of the DSS. “A formal application to secure the release of these two passports was made in open court by Nnamdi Kanu’s defence team in February 9, 2016, which the learned trial judge in his ruling delivered on that same day refused to grant. This is a clear indication that Nnamdi Kanu came into the country with valid travelling passports contrary to the erroneous views expressed at the media chat.”
The AUTHORITY recalls that Justice John Tsoho had on January 29, denied bail to Kanu and two other pro-Biafra agitators, Benjamin Madubugwu and David Nwawuisi, who are facing trial with him. The trio are answering to a six-count treason charge that was preferred against them by the federal government.
Kanu, who was hitherto the Director of Radio Biafra and Television, has been in detention since October 14, 2015, when he was arrested by security operatives upon his arrival to Nigeria from his base in the United Kingdom. The defendants were in the charge that was signed by the Director of Public Prosecution, DPP, Mr. Mohammed Diri, alleged to have committed treasonable felony, an offence punishable under Section 41(C) of the Criminal Code Act, CAP C38 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria.
FG alleged that they were the ones managing the affairs of IPOB which it described as “an unlawful society”. Specifically, Kanu was alleged to have illegally smuggled radio transmitters into Nigeria, which he used to disseminate “hate broadcasts”, encouraging the “secession of the Republic of Biafra”, from Nigeria.
However, the accused persons pleaded not guilty to the charge on January 20, even as the court ordered their remand at Kuje Prison in Abuja.
Source
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