Nigerian government re-arraigns Nnamdi Kanu before new judge

Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), has pleaded not guilty, again, to the terrorism charges brought against him by the federal government.

He denied the charges during his re-arraignment before a new trial judge, James Omotosho of the Federal High Court in Abuja, on Friday.

Mr Kanu, whose protest and allegation of bias against the former trial judge, Binta Nyako, led to the reassignment of the case to Mr Omotosho, pleaded not guilty to all seven counts, including an accusations of threatening Nigeria’s corporate existence and operating illegal radio station to broadcast the Biafra messages.

The treasonable felony and terrorism charges stemmed from his separatist activities for the secession of Nigeria’s five Igbo-dominated South-east states and parts of the neighbouring states as a sovereign Biafra nation.

The Biafra agitation, when first enacted in the 1960s, led to the Civil War that raged between 1967 and 1970 within the first decade of Nigeria’s Independence.

Mr Kanu took the baton for the Biafra agitation and escalated it in 2015, asserting that he and his people have the right to self-determination.

The Nigerian government arrested and charged him in 2015, as it increasingly became uncomfortable with Mr Kanu’s separatist campaigns through then-Radio Biafra.

Mr Kanu was dressed in his usual white designer wear as the hearing of his case resumed before the new judge on Friday.

The re-arraignment took place amid tight security provided by operatives of the State Security Service (SSS) around the court premises.

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After the defendant’s plea, the federal government’s lead counsel, Adegboyega Awomolo, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), announced his “readiness to conduct prosecution in line with the spirit and letters of the Supreme Court that ordered fresh trial.”

Mr Awomolo asked for an adjournment to enable him to assemble his witnesses. He also applied for accelerated hearing which was granted by the court.

Based on the request and due to a lack of objection by the defence counsel led by Kanu Agabi, also a SAN and former Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, the judge fixed 29 April, 2 and 6 May for trial.

Mr Kanu was rearrested in 2021 in Kenya and brought back to Nigeria to continue his trial, which started in 2015.

He has been detained in SSS custody on the order of the court since 2021.

The Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, John Tsoho, had in a letter dated 4 Marchand addressed to Mr Kanu’s former lead counsel, Aloy Ejimakor, communicated the re-assignment of the case from Mrs Nyako to Mr Omotosho.

The re-assignment followed the demand by Mr Kanu and his team of lawyers for the transfer of the case to another judge following the IPOB leader’s bias allegation against Mrs Nyako.

Mrs Nyako earlier recused herself from the matter on 24 September 2024 and sent the case file to the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court for re-assignment. The judge said she could not proceed with a trial where a defendant lacked confidence in her handling of his trial. However, the Chief Judge returned the case file to her, leading to an outburst from the defendant against Mrs Nyako on 10 February.

Before Mrs Nyako, two other judges – Ahmed Mohammed (now a Justice of the Court of Appeal) and Mr Tsoho (before becoming the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court) had presided over Mr Kanu.

READ ALSO: Nnamdi Kanu regrets outburst, apologises to judge Nyako, prosecutor

The case was successively taken away from the two judges based on Mr Kanu’s bias allegation.

PREMIUM TIMES reported Mr Kanu’s surprise apology, on Friday, to Mrs Nyako and other targets of his outbursts at the previous proceedings. Mr Kanu, through his lawyer, tendered the apology as his trial came up for the first time before the new judge on Friday.