ABUJA (Sundiata Post) – The leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Mr. Nnamdi Kanu has asked the Federal High Court (FHC) sitting in Abuja to set aside an order earlier granted to the operatives of the Department of Security Service (DSS) to detain him for 90 days on alleged investigation of terrorism against him by the Federal Government.
Kanu, who is also the founder of the Radio Biafra, asked the court to strike out a criminal charge with reference no FHC/ABJ/CS/873/2015 brought against him by the DSS.
In a motion on notice argued before Justice Adeniyi Ademola, the detained Biafra activist applied for an order of the court admitting him to bail and also directing the State Security Service (SSS) to obey an order of the chief magistrate court which had earlier granted him bail in the motion argued by his counsel Mr. Egechukwu Obetta.
He claimed that the order of the FHC that permitted the SSS to detain him for 90 days pending the investigation of terrorism allegations against him was obtained fraudulently by the SSS.
The grounds of the defendant’s application was among others, that the exparte motion dated and filed on Oct 26 by the SSS and upon which the permission to detain him was granted was an abuse of court process brought in complete bad fate.
Kanu alleged that the SSS did not reveal to the Federal High Court the fact of the pendency of a criminal charge already brought against him by the SSS in the Abuja Chief Magistrate Court.
He also claimed that the SSS suppressed the facts of the active pendency of the criminal action the Chief Magistrate Court had granted him but which the SSS had deliberately refused to comply with the bail order.
Kanu further claimed that the magistrate court where he was arraigned by SSS was a creation of statute and recognised under the law and that all his decisions and proceedings ought to be binding on all parties until set aside on Appeal.
The IPOB Coordinator also claimed that the allegations of sponsoring and financing terrorism against him was a bare allegation and not supported with any trade of evidence that he was preparing to take up arms against the Nigerian nation.
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Kanu further claimed that his continued detention in spite of the order of the magistrate that released him on bail was a trespass and in violation of his basic freedom as guarantee by the 1999 constitution.
He, therefore, urged the court to set aside the order that he be detained for 90 days on the ground that Section 27 of the Terrorism Prevention Act 2003 and any other provision which empowers the court to make order for his detention or any other person beyond 24 hours without trial was against the constitution.
Justice Ademola has adjourned the case till Monday, December 14, for the counsel to the DSS, Mr. Moses Idakwu, to respond to the motion.
