FG asks court to revoke Nnamdi Kanu’s bail

Reports indicate that the Federal Government has finally asked the Federal High Court in Abuja to revoke the bail granted the leader of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra, Mr. Namdi Kanu, who is being prosecuted along with others on treasonable felony charges.

The prosecution made this request in an application it filed before the court and served on Kanu on Friday. Saturday PUNCH had exclusively reported in its July 22, 2017 edition that there were plans by the Federal Government to ask court to revoke the bail granted Kanu on April 25, 2017.

Kanu had, earlier in his application filed on July 1, 2017, urged the court to vary the conditions of the bail granted him on April 25, 2017. But the Federal Government hinged its fresh motion seeking the revocation of Kanu’s bail on the grounds that the IPOB leader had flouted the terms and conditions of the bail.

Justice Binta Nyako had, in her ruling delivered on April 25, granted bail to Kanu, but dismissed the separate bail applications filed by his co-defendants — the National Coordinator of IPOB, Mr. Chidiebere Onwudiwe; an IPOB member, Benjamin Madubugwu, and a former Field Maintenance Engineer seconded to the MTN, David Nwawuisi.

Recently, after the court delivered its ruling on the defendants’ bail applications, the prosecuting counsel, Mr. Magaji Labaran, amended the charges to include another co-defendant, Bright Chimezie.

In his application filed on July 1, 2017, Kanu maintained that parts of the bail conditions prohibiting him from being seen in a crowd exceeding 10 persons, granting press interviews and holding or attending rallies violated his constitutional rights.

His lawyer, Mr. Ifeanyi Ejiofor, stated in the motion that the undesirable bail terms and conditions were contained in paragraphs 2(vii) and (viii) of the court’s ruling granting bail to his client on April 25. But the Federal Government, in its fresh application, asked the court to revoke the bail granted Kanu and order his immediate arrest by the police.

The Federal Government’s counter-affidavit filed in support of the motion and deposed to by a litigation clerk in the Office of the Director Public Prosecutions, pieced together Kanu’s alleged acts of serial violation of the bail conditions imposed by the court.

It maintained that Kanu had flagrantly violated all the bail conditions. It stated that the essence of the bail, which was for Kanu to look after his health, had been defeated. According to the prosecution, instead of using the opportunity of his bail to attend to his health needs, Kanu went ahead to inaugurate a security outfit known as the Biafra Security Service.

The prosecution said this constituted a threat to national security. It also cited an instance of how Kanu allegedly incited his followers “to disrupt, disallow and boycott elections in south East states, starting with Anambra State governorship election scheduled to hold onvbNovember 18, 2017, if the Federal Government failed to hold a referendum for the realisation of the state of Biafra nation.”