Amended Charge: You Have Simply Repackaged What The Court Of Appeal Struck Out – Nnamdi Kanu Slams FG

The detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, has said that the amended seven-count terrorism charge the Federal Government filed against him is baseless and ill-advised.

Kanu, who is currently in the custody of the Department of State Service, DSS, through his team of lawyers, argued that the amended charge was the same as the one that was recently struck out by the Court of Appeal.

Naija News recalls that the Federal Government had filed an amended charge in the Federal High Court in Abuja which alleged that Kanu had as a member of an unlawful group issued a deadly threat that anyone who flouted his sit-at-home order in the South Eastern part of the country, should write his or her Will.

Reacting to the charge, Kanu in a press statement signed by a senior member of his defence team Ifeanyi Ejiofor stated that the government had not served him a copy of the seven-count amended charge.

The statement reads, “From all indications, the new alleged charge has the same Charge No. FHC/ABJ/ER/383/2015, as the one already pronounced upon and struck out by the Court of Appeal, Abuja Division.

“The said intermediate court completely discharged Onyendu Mazi Nnamdi Kanu and further prohibited his being tried or prosecuted in any court of law in Nigeria.

“The said judgment of the Court of Appeal is extant and still subsists to date, and has not been set aside by any superior court.

“Onyendu Mazi Nnamdi Kanu’s formidable team ably by the oracle of the Law – Chief Ozekhome SAN – has already promptly appealed to the Supreme Court against the Court of Appeal’s ruling staying execution of its own judgment which had set Kanu free.

“The Appeal in respect thereto has been duly entered in Appeal No. SC/CR/1394/2022, at the Supreme Court, and is now awaiting a date for hearing.”

Kanu stated that since the judgement of the court of appeal still stands it would be impossible and against the law for the amended charge holds no water.

The IPOB leader alleged that after various enquiries it was revealed that the rumoured charge was surreptitiously but clandestinely filed by the Federal Government hours after the judgment of the Court of Appeal was delivered on the 13th Day of October 2022.

“The filing of the said charge was clearly ill-informed and ill-advised, because the Prosecutor (Federal Government), we presume and may want to believe, was not at that point in time aware of the details, full import and implication, of the well-delivered judgment of the Court of Appeal, at the time of filing the said charge.

“We also want to believe that this is what has led to the Federal Government’s abandonment of the charge after it was hurriedly filed.

“It is pertinent to note also that the Federal Government did not take any step to either serve the charge on our Client – Onyendu Mazi Nnamdi Kanu – or on our erudite lead Counsel – Chief Mike Ozekhome, SAN – after it was filed; even till this moment.“ the statement added.