Nnamdi Kanu, the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and Director of the London-based Radio Biafra, has met the tough bail conditions given on October 19 by the Abuja Municipal Magistrate Court, at Wuse (Zone 2), News Express can report this evening. The conditions included a surety of N10 million and a civil servant of Grade Level 16 with landed property in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
Information made available by the International Society for Civil Liberties & the Rule of Law (Intersociety), which is championing the struggle for Kanu’s release, has it that “the harsh and draconian bail conditions so imposed have been met by Citizen Kanu’s lawyers and associates as at Tuesday, 20th October 2015, leading to filing of all necessary papers and completion of their processes in good time.”
According to Intersociety, “The DSS ought to or was expected to have completed its verification process by Thursday, 22nd October 2015, and caused Citizen Nnamdi Kanu to be released in compliance with the order of the Abuja Municipal Magistrate Court, dated since 19th October 2015. This, the DSS failed woefully to do till date.”
The frontline rights group further revealed that “upon meeting all draconian bail conditions so attached leading to refusal by the DSS to release the detained Biafran self determination activist, the Presiding Magistrate made an express Production Order on Friday, 23rd October 2015 for the DSS to produce Citizen Nnamdi Kanu before his Court same date and explain why it failed to release the detained Biafran self determination activist upon meeting the imposed bail conditions.”
The group said that the Production Order was communicated to the DSS by court bailiffs and the Magistrate’s orderly yesterday, but “disappointedly, they were sent back by the DSS and the order was fragrantly and rapaciously disobeyed.”
In the circumstances, Kanu will spend yet another weekend in detention but “the struggle (for his release) continues next week,” Intersociety said.
News Express reports that Kanu was arrested in a Lagos hotel in the morning of Saturday, October 17, 2015, and whisked away to Abuja, where he has remained detained by the DSS. His continued detention has sparked demonstrations mainly in South-East and South-South Nigeria, as well as elsewhere in Europe, Asia and the Americas.
•Photo shows Nnamdi Kanu.
NEWS EXPRESS is Nigeria’s leading online newspaper. Published by Africa’s international award-winning journalist, Mr. Isaac Umunna, NEWS EXPRESS is Nigeria’s first truly professional online daily newspaper. It is published from Lagos, Nigeria’s economic and media hub, and has a provision for occasional special print editions. Thanks to our vast network of sources and dedicated team of professional journalists and contributors spread across Nigeria and overseas, NEWS EXPRESS has become synonymous with newsbreaks and exclusive stories from around the world.