Court orders DSS to release Kanu

Adeniyi Ademola, justice of the federal high court, Abuja, on Thursday ordered the immediate release of Nnamdi Kanu, director of Radio Biafra and leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).

The court held that the continued detention of Kanu by the Department of States Services (DSS) was unlawful.

Ademola held that Kanu was yet to be charged on “suspicion of terrorism”, adding that, perhaps, the secret police lacked the required material prosecute him.

The judge emphasised that the detention-without charge- of the IPOB leader from October to December was contrary to the provisions of the constitution.

He therefore set aside an earlier order giving the DSS leave to hold Kanu for 90 days.

“I order that the applicant be released unconditionally,” Ademola ruled.

On Wednesday, Shuaibu Usman of the magistrate court in Wuse zone 2, Abuja, discharged Kanu, on all counts of “criminal conspiracy, intimidation and leading an unlawful society” brought against him by the federal government.

The government through its agent, the DSS, had elected to withdraw the case at the lower court for a higher court, which has jurisdiction to entertain charges bordering on terrorism.

Despite an order granting him bail in October, the secret police procured an order of the federal high court, Abuja, to keep the self-styled leader of IPOB in detention.

But his lawyer, Vincent Obetta, filed a counter application, seeking bail for the accused person.

The wave of protests, which had been sweeping through the south-east, spread to Lagos on Wednesday.

Kanu’s supporters have been demanding his immediate and unconditional release.