Nnamdi Kanu finally files defence in terrorism trial
After days of refusing to heed the court’s advice to file his defence, separatist leader Nnamdi Kanu has now complied and on Friday commenced the process of filing his defence in his terrorism trial at the Federal High Court in Abuja.
Mr Kanu was filing the documents inside the courtroom, as directed by Judge James Omotosho, at the time of this report.
When his trial resumed on Friday, after it was adjourned on Wednesday, Mr Kanu told the court that he had an important court process to file, which he claimed he had not been allowed to do.
Following his complaints, the judge ordered that the court’s registry be temporarily relocated to the courtroom to allow Mr Kanu to complete the filing.
The lawyer to the federal government, Adegboyega Awomolo, told the court he would accept the documents from Mr Kanu and respond accordingly.
At the time of this report, proceedings in the case had been stood down for one hour to enable the filing to be concluded.
Before now, Mr Kanu had refused to open his defence, insisting he had “no case to answer.’
The judge on Wednesday gave Mr Kanu the last chance to open his defence, a scenario that has repeatedly played out in the previous month in the case.
The Nigerian government has been prosecuting Mr Kanu on seven charges, mostly terrorism-related, since 2015.
The charges stemmed from his alleged violent secessionist campaigns for the independence of the Igbo-dominated South-eastern part of Nigeria as Biafra.
But the dual Nigerian and British citizen has repeatedly denied wrongdoing.
The prosecution closed its case with five witnesses in June.
After the prosecution closed its case, Mr Kanu filed a no-case submission, arguing that the prosecution failed to lead credible evidence against him to warrant putting forward any defence.
However, in September, the judge dismissed the no-case submission, ruling that he had a case to answer and should enter his defence.
Since then, several proceedings have been scheduled for him to start his defence after he suddenly disengaged his lawyers and told the court that he would defend himself.
The case was adjourned several times in the past month to keep the window of defence open, while Mr Kanu continued to maintain that there is no valid charge against him to defend.
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He argued that the charges against him “were brought under a repealed terrorism law.”
Following Mr Kanu’s insistence that the charges were invalid, the judge, Mr Omotosho, on Wednesday, reminded him of the need to keep his “gun powder dry” for his defence.
Mr Kanu said he would need to consult with his four legal consultants, whom he named as Nnaemeka Ejiofor, Aloy Ejimakor, Maxwell Okpara and Mandela Umegborogu, after which the case was adjourned to Friday (today).