The leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Nnamdi Kanu, has promised to restore peace in the south-east region of Nigeria.
Kanu disclosed this on Tuesday, moments after the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja dismissed his fresh application to be released on bail, pending the determination of the treasonable felony charge the FG preferred against him.
The IPOB leader, who was first arrested by security agents in Lagos on October 14, 2015, has been in detention since June 29, 2021.
Justice Nyako granted him bail on health grounds on April 25, 2017, after he had spent about 18 months in detention.
Upon the perfection of the bail conditions, he was released on April 28, 2017, from Kuje prison.
However, midway into the trial, the IPOB leader escaped from the country after soldiers invaded his country home at Afara Ukwu Ibeku in Umuahia, Abia State, an operation that led to the deaths of some of his followers.
Nnamdi Kanu was later re-arrested in Kenya on June 19, 2021, and extraordinarily renditioned back to the country by security agents on June 27, 2021.
Following the development, the trial court, on June 29, 2021, remanded him in custody of the Department of State Services, DSS, where he has remained till date.
On April 8, 2022, the court struck out eight out of the 15-count charges that FG preferred against him on the premise that they lacked substance.
Likewise, the Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal, on October 13, 2022, ordered Kanu’s immediate release from detention even as it quashed the charge against him.
The appellate court said it was satisfied that FG flagrantly violated all known laws when it forcefully rendered Kanu from Kenya to the country for the continuation of his trial.
It held that such arbitrary use of power by the Nigerian government deprived the trial court of jurisdiction to further try the appellant.
Dissatisfied with the decision, FG took the matter before the Supreme Court, even as it persuaded the appellate court to suspend the execution of the judgement pending the determination of its appeal.
While deciding the appeal, the Supreme Court, on December 15, 2023, vacated the judgement of the appellate court and gave FG the nod to try the IPOB leader on the subsisting seven-count charge.
Justice Nyako had earlier expressed her displeasure over how the trial had been conducted since 2015.
“This is exactly the way this case has been going since 2015. I am talking to both sides. You always find a way to truncate the proceedings,” the judge fumed.
However, irked by today’s ruling, Nnamdi Kanu opined, “They know me very well. I suspect that people in government are complicit. They are making money out of insecurity. If they know Nnamdi Kanu is outside in two minutes, this nonsense will stop.
“Who is the idiot? that will speak when I am talking. Who is the fool? Who is the idiot I asked? I will give an order in the east, and any idiot will counter it. Who is the bastard I am asking you?
“Nobody can; I am Nnamdi Kanu, who is the idiot. Let me come out of this nonsense, this mess, in two minutes only. In only two minutes, I guarantee you that there will be peace in the east. Everywhere in the south-east, if not the entire south”.
