Kanu in high spirits in detention –Counsel

 

Laments DSS refusal to release him despite 3 court orders

Mr Vincent Egechukwu Obetta, counsel to the de­tained Director of Radio Biafra, Mr Nnamdi Kanu, said yesterday that the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) was in high spirits the last time he saw him in detention this week in Abuja.
Responding to a question on the spec­ulation that Kanu has been moved out of Abuja, his counsel, who spoke at a press briefing in Enugu, said that he was still being detained in the Department of State Security (DSS) cell despite court orders demanding his evacuation from the DSS facility and ultimately granted bail.
He showed newsmen the court orders where Kanu was granted bail and anoth­er where the court ordered that the IPOB leader be removed from the DSS cell to prison custody.
The first court order issued by A.U. Shuaibu of the Chief Magistrate Court, FCT on October 19 read in part:
“Upon hearing an oral application of the defense counsel to the accused, praying the honourable court for the bail of the accused person.
“I hereby grant the accused person bail in the sum of N10 million with one surety in the like sum.
“The surety to be a resident of the Federal Capital territory, a land owner with property within Garki/Wuse axis, the value of which should not be less than N20 million, the Certificate of Oc­cupancy of the property to be deposited with the registrar of the court. The case is adjourned to 18th day of November, 2015.
According to Obetta, they fulfilled the bail conditions on October 20 and the court registrar took the documents to the DSS for verification.
“When the verification of the docu­ment was delayed, we returned to the court and applied on October 23 that our client be produced and the court gave an order to the DSS to so on the same day. But surprisingly this court order was not obeyed by the DSS.
“Therefore, I went back to the court on October 26 and made a fresh order that my client be transferred to prison custody where he will have access to his family members which the court granted us and the acknowledgement of receipt of the order signed by the DSS,” he said, lamenting that the DSS has refused to obey all the three orders of a competent court even when his client has not been found guilty of any offence.
Obetta said that he was worried over the liberty of Kanu and the violation of his fundamental human rights as his continued incarceration has showed.
“What this means is that my client has been found guilty before his trial. Nige­rians should prevail on the DSS to obey the laws. We are not arguing on the pro­priety of the matter but his human right that was being trampled upon by the se­curity agency,” he pointed out.
The lawyer, however, commended the police in Enugu, Anambra, Imo and Aba on how they have been able to handle the protests of the IPOB mem­bers demanding the release of their leader.
He urged the Federal Government not to toe the line of force in handling the protest that is now widespread in the South-East and South-South states, saying that the country “is already in turmoil from South-South to North- East and now South-East, the use of force is not an option in this case.”
Saturday Sun reliably gathered that the IPOB members had carried their protest to Owerri, Imo State capital yesterday to dare Governor Rochas Okorocha who was to convene a meet­ing of the South-East governors, stake­holders and the pro-Biafra protesters not to do so.
The protesters are said to be ready to move down to Enugu on Tuesday next week where the meeting has been shift­ed to, insisting that unless their leader was released they would not be party to any parley.