Biafra: Kanu didn’t apologise to Buhari, says lawyer

 

From Aloysius Attah, Onitsha

1. Vincent Obetta, coun­sel to detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and Director of Ra­dio Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu, has refuted reports that he (Kanu) tendered an apology to President Muhammadu Buhari.

Obetta told TheCable yesterday that reports of Kanu’s apology were proof that government was trying to use all instruments at its disposal to ‘puncture’ the Bi­afra campaigner’s defence. “It is not true,” he reiterated.
“Government is using every instrument to punc­ture what we are doing,” he maintained.
Department of State Ser­vices (DSS) arraigned Kanu in court in October. Shuaibu Usman, presiding over the Chief Magistrate Court, Wuse Zone 2, Abuja, had earlier discharged him on all counts of criminal con­spiracy and ownership of an unlawful society brought against him by the Federal Government.
The Federal Government then filed a fresh five-count charge of treasonable felony against Kanu, after Justice Adeniyi Ademola of the Federal High Court, Abuja, ordered the DSS to release him ‘unconditionally’.
In his ruling, Ademola held that the continued de­tention of Kanu by the DSS was unlawful, since the ac­cused was yet to be charged on suspicion of terrorism. Speaking before the Federal High Court the following day, Kanu said he had lost confidence in the court’s abilities to give an order and have the authorities follow it, asking the court to leave him in detention.
“I will rather remain in detention than subject my­self to a trial that I know amounts to perversion of justice,” he had said.
Meanwhile, Archdeacon of Oyi Anglican Archdea­conry in Anambra State and human rights activist, Venerable Joseph Nweke, has pleaded with President Muhammadu Buhari for Kanu’s release without fur­ther delay.
He said Kanu’s continued detention in disobedience of court orders could be lik­ened to the Biblical Pharoah who refused to allow Isra­elites leave Egypt and also, the Biblical John the Apostle who could not be killed by enemies, even after they threw him into hot oil.
Nweke, who spoke at St Mark’s Anglican Church, Ogbunike in Oyi Local gov­ernment during a church service to mark St. John the Apostles Day, specifi­cally called on Buhari not to harden his heart to Kanu’s release.
Nweke said he had gradu­ally read the charges pre­ferred against Kanu logical­ly and came to a conclusion that he did not do any thing to warrant his continued de­tention against all the orders of various courts of compe­tent jurisdiction.