Nnamdi Kanu Admitted To Inciting Attacks On Police Officers – Witness
A witness told the Federal High Court in Abuja that Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), confessed to running an unlicensed radio station and encouraging the public to attack police officers.
The second witness, an official of the Department of State Services (DSS), identified with the acronym BBB in line with the court’s shielding of witnesses’ identities, said Kanu also founded the Eastern Security Network (ESN), an armed wing of the IPOB.
Led in evidence by the prosecuting lawyer, Adegboyega Awomolo (SAN), BBB testified that Kanu also operated an illegal radio station, which broadcast on frequencies 102.1 FM and 88.0 FM, which was not licensed by the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC).
BBB said he was on July 2021, assigned the duty of taking Kanu’s statement following a letter from the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) requesting that the IPOB leader be investigated for his alleged terrorism activities.
The witness said he carried out the assignment in the company of four other colleagues. He said he handed Kanu the letter from the AGF, which the defendant read and also gave his lawyers to read, following which he requested that Kanu respond to the issues raised in the letter after which he volunteered to make a statement and it was recorded on video.
Asked about what Kanu was agitating for, the witness said Kanu wanted the secession of the five South East states, parts of Kogi and Benue states from the rest of Nigeria.
Awomolo sought to tender a copy of the compact disc, which BBB identified as containing the recording of his interaction with Kanu, the letter from the AGF, and a certificate of compliance.
However, defence counsel, Kanu Agabi, (SAN), objected to the tendering of the items, arguing that the defence was not served with the AGF letter and the video recording.
In his ruling, Justice James Omotosho agreed with Agabi that the defence has the right to be served with all the documents and materials the prosecution planned to rely on in prosecuting the case.
Testifying earlier, the first witness admitted that he was unaware that eight of the 15 terrorism charges against Kanu had been struck out.
Earlier, a mild drama ensued when a lawyer named Charles Ude presented a letter before the court claiming to be Kanu’s lawyer.
The claim was rejected by Agabi and Alloy Ejimakor, which was affirmed by Kanu himself.
The judge directed that he could only recognise only 16 of the 29 lawyers who are participating in the matter.
The judge also barred for three sittings a relative of Kanu, Favour Kanu for streaming the case on Facebook.
The case continues on May 7.
