Biafra: Why We Won’t Release Nnamdi Kanu – FG Tells Appeal Court

The President Muhammadu Buhari-led government on Monday revealed the reason why it refused to obey the ruling of the Court of Appeal ordering it to release the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, from detention.

Recall that the Appeal Court had discharged Kanu of the charges filed against him by the Federal Government.

The Federal Government, in a fresh affidavit filed before the Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja, maintained that Kanu posed a flight risk.

According to the Federal Government, the IPOB leader would escape from the country as soon as he is released from detention.

The affidavit was attached in support of an application seeking to stay the execution of the appellate court verdict that quashed the entire 15-count terrorism charge the federal government leveled against Nnamdi Kanu.

An Assistant State Counsel in the office of the Attorney-General of the Federation, David Kaswe on Monday told the court that the case against Kanu bordered on national security.

Kaswe stated that the fundamental rights of Kanu should not supersede the interest of the nation.

The federal government argued that once a case touched on national security, the right of the individual affected took a secondary place.

Kaswe said, “It is important to appreciate the gamut of depositions in our application. The Respondent is a flight risk person and one of the grounds of our application is that this matter touches on the national security of the state.

“We further rely on the case of FRN Vs Dokubo, where the Supreme Court held that where national security is threatened or when there is the likelihood of it being threatened, human rights take a secondary place.

“Once there is a threat to national security, the human rights of any individual can be suspended until the such threat is taken care of.

“Once the security of the nation is in jeopardy, the individual right may not even exist.”

He added that the intelligence report revealed that the security situation in the South East would get worse if Kanu is released from detention.

Kaswe noted, “The defendant has shown that he has the capacity to jump bail or to escape from lawful custody. There is reasonable intelligence that the enforcement of the judgement of this court, pending the determination of our appeal at the Supreme Court, may impact negatively on the declining security in the South East.

“No court can close its eyes on activities happening around it. As we speak, the entire social media is awash with threats to security in the country.

“We believe that there is an exceptional circumstance to warrant this court to grant our application.

“We urge this court to resolve the sole issue we raised and find our application meritorious, in the interest of justice and unity of the country.”