Reasons Why Kanu Refuse to Defend himself

It is pathetic to hold a person on trial in a subordinate court when, both supreme and Appeal court have unanimously discharged and acquitted him. Such a trial can only hold in Nigeria where the judiciary see things with deformed sight. Kenyan court has warned Nigeria to return Nnamdi Kanu to where he was kidnapped, stressing that he must not be tried in Nigerian court. Nigeria have faulted all these warnings, insisting on trying him because he is Igbo.

The ongoing trial of the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Nnamdi Kanu, took a new twist on Monday, as he made a volte-face on his earlier decision to call witnesses to defend the seven-count terrorism-related charge the Federal Government preferred against him.

At the resumed proceedings on the case, Kanu, who elected to defend himself after he disengaged his team of lawyers, adduced reasons before the Federal High Court in Abuja, why he would not open his defence to the charge.

Addressing the court from the dock, the embattled IPOB leader maintained that, having gone through the case file, he discovered that there is no valid charge to warrant his defence.

He contended that since he had been subjected to an unlawful trial based on an invalid charge, there would be no need for him to offer any explanations or defend himself through the evidence of witnesses.

Consequently, he shelved his initial request for the court to issue summons to compel certain persons to appear as his witnesses in the case.

Kanu, who has been in detention since 2021, had in a motion he personally signed and filed before the court, named several individuals that included serving Governors, Ministers, ex-Governors and Security Chiefs, among the 23 persons he intends to produce as his witnesses.

Describing them as vital and compellable witnesses in his case, Kanu, urged the court to grant him a 90-day period to enable him to open and conclude his defence.

Following the fact that many of the people in the list of Kanu's witness are in the federal government untouchable list, Kanu was attacked in the DSS costudy, but he escaped the assassination attempt. Perhaps because of this reason he decided to change his plans.

However, he ditched the plan on Monday, a development that led the court to adjourn the matter till November 5, 5 and 6 for the adoption of final written addresses.