IPOB: FG accuses Nnamdi Kanu of new offences

Nnamdi Kanu, the arrested leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), is facing an upgraded seven-count terrorism indictment, which has dramatically changed the legal situation around him.

The revised charge, with the file number FHC/ABJ/CR/383/2015, included accusations against the IPOB leader that the trial court had already upheld.

According to the charges, Kanu, a member of an illegal organisation, made a fatal threat in a broadcast that was heard and received throughout the nation, telling anybody who disobeyed his command to stay at home in the South Eastern region of the nation to make a will.

Because of the danger, businesses in the Eastern States of Nigeria, including fuel stations, banks, schools, markets, and shopping malls, have continued to close, impeding the passage of people and vehicles.

Additionally, the federal government claimed that between 2018 and 2021, the detained IPOB leader had broadcasts heard and received in Nigeria that encouraged people to kill and hunt down Nigerian security personnel and their families, violating Section 1(2)(h) of the Terrorism Prevention Amendment Act, 2013.

Kanu was accused by the prosecution of ordering IPOB members “to manufacture bombs,” and that between March and April 2015, the defendant “imported into Nigeria and kept in Ubulisiuzor in Ihiala Local Government Area of Anambra State within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, a Radio Transmitter known as Tram 50L concealed in a container of used household items, and you thereby committed an offence.

Justice Binta Nyako has in the meanwhile invited the attorneys for the Federal Government and Nnamdi Kanu to appear before her on Monday to discuss whether Kanu may still be charged with the modified offence in light of the Court of Appeal’s decision to release him.