The Nigerian Government, on Tuesday, June 29, announced that it has arrested the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu. The Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, at a press briefing, stated that Kanu was arrested on Sunday, June 27 and would continue with his trial. According to Minister Malami, Kanu was apprehended by the collaborative efforts of security services. The IPOB leader was first arrested in October 2015 and subsequently arraigned on an 11-count charge bordering on terrorism and treasonable felony, based on his agitations for the secession of the South East states, to form Biafra. However, he jumped bail in September 2017 and left the country after a military raid on his home. The court later revoked his bail in March 2019 and ordered his re-arrest. Following his re-arrest, he was re-arraigned at the Federal High Court in Abuja. The case has been adjourned to July 26 and 27 for continuation of trial. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It will be recalled that there was\na rash of attacks on police formations and offices of the Independent National\nElectoral Commission (INEC) in the South East in recent times, which the\ngovernment claimed was perpetrated by IPOB and the Eastern Security Network\n(ESN). IPOB denied responsibility for these attacks on state installations.\nThere have been altercations between security forces and the group, resulting\nin unrest in the South Eastern States, particularly in Imo State. Also, several\nradio broadcasts and social media posts, often containing inciteful statements\nhave been attributed to Kanu. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Minister of Information and\nCulture, Lai Mohammed had earlier justified the ban on Twitter operations in\nNigeria, citing the use of the Twitter platform by Nnamdi Kanu, to disseminate what\nhe called inciteful comments. There have however been questions around the\narrest of Kanu, who is also known to hold British citizenship. Calls are\nbeginning to swell demanding his fair treatment in line with the rule of law\nand human right protections. There is no doubt that his trial will be the\nsubject of nationwide and even international interest. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Nigerian Government, on Tuesday, June 29, announced that it has arrested the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu. The Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, at a press briefing, stated that Kanu was arrested on Sunday, June 27 and would continue with his trial. According […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2179,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[372,375,371,376],"class_list":["post-2174","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-dragged-back-to-resume-his-trial","tag-eastern-security-network-esn","tag-ipob-leader-seized-in-kenya","tag-nnamdi-kanu"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2174","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2174"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2174\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2180,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2174\/revisions\/2180"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}