Nigerian govt lists Kanu’s lawyers as accomplices in amended charges

The Federal Government has amended the charges preferred against embattled leader of the outlawed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, and is poised to re-arraign him on a new six-count treasonable felony charge.

In the amended charges, his lawyers have also been listed as accomplices in the treasonable felony case.

The amended charges were brought before Justice Binta Nyako at the resumed hearing of the Biafran agitator on Wednesday to hear an application Kanu filed to be released on bail, pending the determination of the charge against him.

Some of Kanu’s lawyers who have been listed as co-defendants in the suit are Barristers Ifeanyi Ejiofor and Maxwell Opara, who will also stand trial as accomplices of the defendant.

The lawyers were said to have aided Kanu jump bail and flee the country before he was re-arrested last year in Kenya and extradited to Nigeria in controversial circumstance.

Kanu’s special counsel, Aloy Ejimakor, who disclosed this in a post on his Facebook page on Wednesday, said one of the seven-count charges against Kanu was removed from the amended charges by the DSS before trial judge Justice Binta Nyako.

“The Federal Government just amended the charges against Nnamdi Kanu now; they removed one, you know it was seven, but they removed one, and now it’s six,” Ejimakor said.

Read also: Kanu’s motion seeking to dismiss terrorism charges to be heard on April 8

“We are in court waiting for the judge’s arrival, and Kanu himself is yet to arrive.”

Justice Nyako had, on April 8, struck out eight out of the 15-count treasonable felony charge the government preferred against Kanu, holding that the charges were mere repetitions that did not disclose any offence that could be sustained by the proof of evidence before the court.

While the court threw out counts 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12,13 and 14 of the charge, it okayed Kanu’s trial on counts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8 and 15.

The ruling followed an application filed by his team of lawyers led by Chief Mike Ozekhome (SAN), Kanu had urged the court to quash the entire charges against him, arguing that the court lacked the jurisdiction to try him on the strength of an incompetent charge.

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