BREAKING: Court Adjourns Proceedings As Nnamdi KANU Absent
The Department of State Services, DSS, on Monday, failed to produce the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Nnamdi Kanu before the Federal High Court in Abuja for the continuation of his trial.
When the case was called up, counsel to the federal government, Mr M. B. Abubakar, told the court that the case is for hearing and that defendant has not yet been produced by the Department of State Service (DSS).
He, however, urged the court to proceed without a fiat taking into consideration that the court has commenced vacation and Justice Binta Nyako was not one of the vacation judges.
On his part, Kanu’s lawyer, Mr. Ifeanyi Ejiofor told the court that the life of his client was in danger.
Ejiofor told the court that he had been unable to have access to his client for the past 10 days.
“My lord, speaking from the Bar, I got it on good authority that my client has been taken away, outside the jurisdiction of this court”, Ejiofor added.
He equally argued that it would be in the interest of justice for the CJ of the court to issue Fiat for the trial to go on during the courts’ vacation.
Meanwhile, trial Justice Binta Nyako noted that the case could not go on in the absence of the Defendant.
“I am also worried why the Defendant is not here. The first step in a criminals matter is to provide the Defendant in court. He is not here.
Though Justice Nyako acknowledged that she could not proceed with the case without Fiat allowing her to sit as a vacation judge, she made an order, directing the DSS to grant Kanu access to his lawyers.
She also turned down requests from Kanu’s lawyers to transfer him from DSS custody to Kuje Prisons.
The judge also ordered that Kanu must be produced before the court on October 21 which is the next adjourned date for the matter.
