Court Denies Kanu's Bail As Kanu Fires Own Lawyer

The Radio Biafra director Nnamdi Kanu is currently in the Federal High Court Abuja for consideration of his bail application.

Kanu Nnamdi

After a long wait and expectation, the court has announced the commencement of the ruling which will be coming in next 30 minutes.

The director of the Radio Biafra has withdrawn one of his lawyers, M. U Udechukwu from representing him in court.

Following the call for appearances, Udechukwu who argued the bail application in favour of kanu drew the attention of the court to the letter said to have been addressed to the judge, John Tsoho.

While Tsoho confirmed the letter, he said he believed it was a domestic matter and not to be on record.

He said: “There is a handwritten letter addressed to my humble self by the first defendant.”

The judge added that the first defendant had stated in the letter that during the last hearing, the lawyer that argued his case was not te one whom he instructed to represent him.

Meanwhile, the lead counsel, Chuks Muoma addressing the court said he did not see the need for the controversy in the courtroom.

His words: “As embarrassing as this appears, I will advise that he take the ruling of the summons of bail which he led and argued and then handover.”

On his own part, Udechukwu addressing the court said it was important to be on record.

 “My lord, it is already on record that I represented the defendant without an instruction from him, I don’t want to implicate my matter and also avoid been summoned by the disciplinary committee,” Udechukwu said.

Udechukwu, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) further announced to the court that he is standing down and apologizing for his actions.

Following Udechukwu’s stand down, the lead counsel announced his appearance and that of another SAN, Ifeanyi Ejiofor for the first defendant.

Kanu had earlier expressed his reservation for the Justice Ahmed Mohammed of the same court, saying he has no confidence in him.

So the case was transferred to Justice John Tsoho.

During the last sitting on January 25, Kanu’s counsel, Chuks Mouma had asked the court to postpone the consideration of bail request.

After the application, Justice John Tsoho had suspended the trial till today for ruling on Kanu’s bail.

Federal High  Court declined the bail application by pro-Biafra agitator, Nnamdi Kanu and his associates, Benjamin Madubugwu and David Nwawuisi.

At his ruling Tsoho said that as submitted by the respondent, the fact that Kanu has two passports – Nigerian and British – indicates the possibility of his escaping trial.

Udechukwu had represented the accused persons at the last bail application hearing.

Before now, another lawyer, Vincent Obetta had represented Kanu during his arraignment at the Magistrate Court and subsequently at the Federal High Court.

Obetta had also succeeded in securing three different bail applications for Kanu in various courts.

While all the bail conditions were perfected, the defendants have remained in the custody of the State Security Services (SSS).

Obetta at some point accused the federal government of fraudulently obtaining a court order to detain his client for 90 days.

The Federal government recently filed fresh six-count charges against the embattled leader of Indigenous People of Biafra.

The government is blaming Kanu for plotting to divide Nigeria, by creating a Biafra Republic with south-east, south-south states, and parts of Kogi and Benue states, as component units.

Source: Naij.com