Nyako and Kanu
By Publisher
Justice Binta Nyako of the Federal High Court, Abuja on Tuesday recused herself from the trial of Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB.
Kanu is facing terrorism charges brought against by the Federal Government before the judge.
However, an enraged Kanu at his resumed hearing on Tuesday told the judge that he had no confidence in the Judge for justice.
Kanu had in the middle of proceedings,l jumped up from the dock, shouting at his counsel, Aloy Ejimakor, and took over addressing the court.
Following the uproar, the IPOB leader expressed his lack of confidence in Justice Nyako, demanding her immediate withdrawal from the trial.
He shouted at his counsel, ordering him repeatedly to sit down.
“Sit down. I say sit down there. Sit down, it is my order,” Kanu barked at Ejimakor.
Embarrassed, the lawyer reluctantly sat down.
Kanu then turned his attention to Justice Nyako, shouting on top of his voice that he doubts getting justice in her court.
“Let me tell you right away, I do not have confidence in this court. I do not have trust in you,” he told the judge.
“I demand that you immediately recuse yourself from this matter. The Federal Government of Nigeria has no jurisdiction to prefer terrorism charges against me. You know the truth but you don’t want to say it.
“You are pretending that you don’t know that the Nigerian government has no right, no jurisdiction to file these charges against me. You are biased against me,” he accused.
Turning to Chief Adegboyega Awomolo, SAN, the Federal Government lawyer, Kanu also accused him of going against the law and doing the bidding of Federal Government’s bidding, saying he can only be charged with any criminal offence in the United Kingdom where the alleged offence was committed.
Awomolo objected to Kanu’s demand that the judge should recuse herself and asked to be permitted to call his first witness, adding that the witness be shielded from public view for security reasons.
However, Ejimakor objected to commencement of trial, saying adding Kanu had not been prepared for any trial because he was not given privacy by DSS to discuss with his client.
He accused the DSS of providing a dirty room and disallowed a foreigner employed to clean up the room by the security agency.
Moreover, Ejimakor claimed that he had filed three separate appeals against the earlier decisions of the high court with two of them challenging the jurisdiction of the court while the third one was on bail.
Therefore, he demanded that the trial be put on hold till the determination of the three appeals by the Court of Appeal.
His request was not granted due to the that of Criminal Justice Act, 2015, which does not permit granting such request.
