Breaking News: Nnamdi Kanu Sent To Kuje Prison For Treason

James Tsoho, justice of the federal high court in Abuja, has ordered that Nnamdi Kanu be remanded in Kuje prison pending his trial for treason.

Nnamdi Kanu is the leader Indigenous People of Biafra and founder of Radio Biafra and has been in the custody of the Department of State Service since October 2015 on charges of treason and others bordering on his agitation for the secession of the Republic of Biafra from Nigeria. Kanu was arraigned along with two others whose names are Benjamin Madubugwu and David Nwawuisi. The accused persons all pleaded not guilty to all the six counts preferred against them.

Judge Tsoho gave the order after listening to Mohammed Diri, counsel to the Department of State Services (DSS), and Chuks Muoma (SAN), counsel to Kanu. Muoma had argued that the accused person be remanded in prison custody away from the cell of the DSS saying that his client had been kept incommunicado in the custody of the DSS for three months. He therefore asked the court to send the accused person to prison so that his family could have access to him. Diri argued that the court should keep Kanu in the custody of the DSS for security reasons but the judge ruled that the defendant be kept in the custody of the Nigeria Prison Service, Kuje.

On December 23, 2015, he had refused to take his plea before Ahmed Mohammed, justice of the federal high court, Abuja, citing lack of confidence in the court. This was after Adeniyi Ademola, another justice of the federal high court, Abuja, ordered the DSS to release him unconditionally, and after a chief magistrate court discharged and acquitted of charges of criminal intimidation and ownership of unlawful society.