Court Adjourns Kanu’s Trial Till October In Absentia As Igboho May Appear In Beninese Court Over Extradition Case

The trial of pro-Biafran independence leader Nnamdi Kanu, which was due to resume on Monday in Abuja before the Federal High Court of Nigeria, has been adjourned to October 21, his lawyer told AFP.

Also, Yoruba Nation campaigner, Sunday Igboho was on Monday scheduled to appear in a Republic of Benin court to face “likely extradition charges to be brought against him by the Nigerian Government.”

Although, no immigration charges in the Monday statement signed by spokesperson Maxwell Adeleye, the Yoruba group said security operatives in Benin have removed leg-chain and hand-cuff from Igboho since Saturday evening, as well as allowing him access to his re eased wife.
The statement further stressed that Igboho is not in court to face “any immigration-related probe in Benin Republic” but “likely extradition charges to be brought against him by the Nigerian Government.”

“We urge supporters from Nigeria not to bother coming to the court premises in Bénin,” the statement added, while expressing confidence that the freedom fighter would be set free.

However, Kanu, the leader of IPOB who has been advocating for the secession of southeastern Nigeria, was arrested abroad after four years on the run and brought back to Nigeria at the end of June.

Kanu is charged with “terrorism, treason, running an illegal company, publishing defamatory material and illegal possession of firearms,” Nigerian Justice Minister Abubakar Malami said in a statement.

Kanu was first arrested in October 2015, but he took advantage of his bail to leave Nigeria in 2017.

“The trial has been adjourned to October 21” because the authorities failed to present Nnamdi Kanu before the court, his lawyer Aloy Ejimkaor told AFP.

The judge said that “the trial could not start without the accused being present”, the lawyer added.

Many journalists were denied access to the courtroom. The human rights organization, Amnesty International, had called on “the Nigerian authorities” to allow “the media free access to the court to do their work”.

Former Biafra, mainly populated by the Igbo community, was the scene of a bloody civil war between 1967 and 1970.

After the death of more than a million people, notably from famine, and the failure of the rebellion, the “Republic of Biafra” was finally reintegrated into Nigeria, a country of nearly 200 million inhabitants regularly shaken by intercommunal tensions.

The arrest of Nnamdi Kanu comes after months of unrest in the region and the creation of a regional paramilitary movement.

At least 127 police and security forces have been killed and some 20 police stations and election commission offices have been stormed since the beginning of the year, according to local media. IPOB denies any accusations of violence.