Nnamdi Kanu, the incarcerated leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) did not appear before the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja Monday for his re-arraignment.
The Federal Government had pressed new charges on Mr. Kanu after he was discharged by an Appeal Court in October. He is facing an amended 7-count terrorism charge.
But the FG director of Public Prosecution MB Abubakar, told presiding Judge Binta Nyako that Kanu refused to be tried under the new charges.
“My lord, I understand that the defendant declined to come to court today.
“As at last week, the defendant was intimated of this sitting and he did not object. However, when I called the office this morning, I was informed that the defendant woke up and declined to come to court.
“All entreaties and pleas were made but he refused to come to court.”
However, according to Kanu’s lawyer Mike Ozekhome, SAN, said in his submission that it was strange to him that Kanu refused to be in court.
“My lord, this is totally strange to me because this is a person that has never hidden his intention to always be in court. In fact, even in processes we filed at both the Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court, the defendant said he would want to be present in court for hearing of all the matters,” Ozekhome said.
He added that Mr. Kanu had not been served with the amended charge..
“We have not even been served with this charge, we only read about it on social media. It was this morning that we discovered that it has been listed on the cause list and I thought that my learned friend will stand up and say that in view of the subsisting Appeal Court judgement, that he is withdrawing it.
“We are surprised because this is an abuse of the court process”, Ozekhome stated. On his part, the DPPF, Mr. Abubakar, said he was not opposed to an adjournment to enable the Supreme Court to determine the appeals pending before it,’’ he argued further.
In quick reaction Justice Nyako adjourned the case indefinitely.
