Magistrate of the Chief Magistrate Court, Wuse Zone 2, Abuja, Shuaibu
Usman, on Wednesday discharged the Director of Radio Biafra and Leader
of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, on all counts
of criminal conspiracy and ownership of an unlawful society brought
against him by the federal government.
After holding that the government had dropped the charges against
Kanu, the judge ruled: “The accused person is hereby discharged and the
case struck out.”
The government through its agent, the Department of State Services
(DSS), had elected to withdraw the case at the lower court for a higher
court, which has jurisdiction to entertain charges bordering on
terrorism, to take over.
Usman was scheduled to deliver judgment on the application of the DSS
on December 1, but he put it off until December 16, reports TheCable.
The DSS has held Kanu for at least 90 days despite an order of the magistrate court granting him bail in October.
After the lower court granted him bail, the DSS got an order of the
federal high court, Abuja, to keep the leader of IPOB in detention.
However, his lawyer, Vincent Obetta, filed a counter application, seeking bail for the accused person.
Meanwhile, Justice of the Federal High Court, Abuja, Adeniyi Ademola, is expected to rule on the bail application on Thursday.
Since, the arrest and detention of Kanu by Nigeria’s secret Police,
in Lagos, on Saturday, October 17, wave of protests, engineered by
IPOB, as well as members of the Movement for the Actualization of
Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) had swept through the South-East and
parts of the South-South, demanding an immediate and unconditional
release of Kanu.
SOURCE:
vanguard
