The leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, was scheduled to be re-arraigned on Monday, according to the Federal Government, but he allegedly refused to appear before the Federal High Court in Abuja.
Kanu is being held by the Department of State Service (DSS) and is being charged with seven further counts of terrorism.
The IPOB leader refused to be taken before the court for a trial, according to a team of government prosecutors led by the Director of Public Prosecution, Mr. M.B. Abubakar.
When the case was called up on Monday by Justice Binta Nyako, the counsel to the government said, “My lord, I understand that the defendant declined to come to court today.
“As at last week, the defendant was intimated of this sitting and he did not object. However, when I called the office this morning, I was informed that the defendant woke up and declined to come to court.
“All entreaties and pleas were made but he refused to come to court.”
But, Chief Mike Ozekhome, SAN, and Kanu’s head of defence team, told the court that FG’s allegation was strange to him.
He said, “My lord, this is totally strange to me because this is a person that has never hidden his intention to always be in court.
“In fact, even in processes we filed at both the Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court, the defendant said he would want to be present in court for hearing of all the matters.”
Ozekhome went further to notify the trial judge about the judgment of the Court of Appeal that quashed the 15-count charge FG preferred against his client and discharged him of all the allegations.
According to him, since FG has gone to the Supreme Court to set aside the judgment and his client also challenged the order that stayed the execution of the verdict, it was better for the matter to be adjourned sine-die.
He, meanwhile, told the court that his client was not served with the amended charge.
“We have not even been served with this charge, we only read about it on the social media. It was this morning that we discovered that it has been listed on the cause list and I thought that my learned friend will stand up and say that in view of the subsisting Appeal Court judgement, that he is withdrawing it.
“We are surprised because this is an abuse of court process”, Ozekhome said.
The DPPF, Mr. Abubakar, responding, said he was not opposed to an adjournment to enable the Supreme Court to determine the appeals pending before it.
Justice Nyako, therefore, adjourned the case indefinitely.