Withdraw charges against my client, Nnamdi Kanu’s lawyer tells Nigerian govt

Ifeanyi Ejiofor, lead counsel to
Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the
Indigenous People of Biafra,
IPOB, has urged the federal
government to withdraw the
five-count charge preferred
against his client and four
others.
Mr. Ejiofor, alongside counsel to
the other defendants, made the
demand on Wednesday in Abuja
at a press briefing.
He said that their demand was
premised on the grounds that
the federal government had
refused to open its case against
the defendants.
“We demand that the five-count
charge preferred against our
clients, Nnamdi Kanu,
Chidiebere Onwudiwe,
Benjamin Madubugwu, David
Nwawuisi and Bright Chimezie
be immediately withdrawn and
the defendants freed without
further ado.
“This is because they have
committed no offence known to
law, and particularly because
the federal government has
refused to open her case on the
criminal charges preferred
against our clients.
“The second to fourth
defendants cannot continue to
be detained on the strength of
the frivolous and concocted
charges, in breach of their
statutory guaranteed rights as
encapsulated under Chapter 4 of
the Constitution,” Mr. Ejiofor
said.
According to him, there must be
an end to litigation.
On the issue of Chimezie, the
fifth defendant, who was added
in an amended charge, Mr.
Ejiofor demanded that the
defendant should be released
following an order made on
May 24.
“He should be released in line with the
order made by Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu of the
Calabar division of the court.”
To buttress the call for withdrawal of the
charges, the lawyer said that several orders
of court which had directed that they be
released unconditionally were flouted with
impunity by the Federal Government.
“It is an incontrovertible fact that orders
made for Kanu’s unconditional release were
disobeyed by the federal government.
“This is not because he has committed any
offence known to law, but for their
deliberate desperation to keep him behind
bars in perpetuity.
“Part of the tricks adopted to ensure that
the trial is truncated on a regular basis is
the unending amendment of the charge, any
time the matter is slated for definite
hearing,” Mr. Ejiofor said.
The News Agency of Nigeria recalls that Mr.
Kanu was arrested by the Department of
State Services (DSS) on October 14, 2015.
Justice Binta Nyako of the Federal High
Court, Abuja, had on April 25, admitted Mr.
Kanu to bail on stringent conditions, but the
others standing trial with him were denied
bail.
The matter was adjourned until July 11 for
trial but could not go on because the court
commenced its annual vacation on July 10
and a new date of October 17 was fixed for
commencement of trial.
(NAN)

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