The self-acclaimed leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafran (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, on Wednesday, told a Federal High Court in Abuja that he was going blind and pleaded to the court to rescue him from the hands of the Department of State Service (DSS), where he has been in custody.
The Biafran Nation agitator who spoke through his lead counsel, Chief Mike Ozekhome (SAN), informed the trial Judge, Justice Binta Nyako that his glasses brought from Kenya where he was arrested was damaged while being picked up and that since his re-arrest, he had not been allowed to take reading glasses provided for him by his family.
He further claimed that the glasses he brought to Nigeria in 2015 when he was first arrested were seized by DSS and have not been released to him.
Kanu also complained that he had not been allowed to take clothes from his family, hence, he has been wearing the same cloth since his re-arrest in June last year.
Meanwhile, the prosecution counsel, Shuaibu Labaran, told the court that, the clothes brought by Kanu’s family had a lion’s heart drawn on them, which he noted, offends operating procedures.
When the judge asked Kanu about the type of cloth he prefers to wear, he said he want to wear the clothes of his people, “Isi Agu”, but the court refused his request.
The Judge then told the DSS to provide Kanu with his eyes glasses to avoid him going blind and adjourned till April 8, 2022, to rule on an application seeking to quash the 15-count terrorism charge filed against him by the federal government after parties adopted their processes for and against the motions filed by the defendant.
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Ozekhome, while pleading with the court to acquit and dismiss all the charges filed against Kanu argued that the 15-count amended charge was “defective and baseless.”
Specifically, Ozekhome informed the court that his application seeks the “quashing, striking out and dismissing of the 15-count amended charge” against Kanu for being “incompetent and denying the court of jurisdiction” to entertain the charge.
The application, with 34 grounds, and supported by 36-paragraph affidavit, Ozekhome said, also seeks for an order acquitting and discharging Kanu for want of jurisdiction and defective, baseless and incompetent charges and asked the court to look at the entire grounds and affidavit, from paragraph 5 to 36, of the notice of preliminary objection of the defendant.
“The defendant was unlawfully and renditionally brought to Nigeria against his will and in flagrant violation of international protocol on extradition,” he said.
However, the prosecution counsel asked the court to discountenance Kanu’s objection and proceed to order him to enter defence.
The IPOB leader was arraigned by the Federal Government over his alleged commission of act of terrorism, felony, incitement, unlawful importation of a radio transmitter, and headship of an illegal organisation.
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I am going blind, I need reading glasses, Nnamdi Kanu tells court