March 20, (THEWILL)- The detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, has dissociated himself from the killings and violence in the southeastern part of the country.
Kanu, who vowed that those behind the violence in the name of being IPOB members would not be spared, spoke in Abuja immediately after a Federal High Court denied him bail.
The IPOB leader, however, explained that the violence persisted because he was being held in captivity. He expressed optimism that peace will return to the region if he is released from detention.
“Anybody committing a crime cannot go free. I swear it. Anybody committing crime in the East cannot go free. They are doing it because I am in the DSS (custody). If I were to be outside, nobody could try this. I suspect that some people in government are complicit. They are making money with the insecurity.
“They know if Nnamdi Kanu is outside, in two minutes, this nonsense will stop. Who is the bagger or idiot that will speak when I am talking? I will give an order in the East. Who is the idiot that I will give an order that will counter it? Nobody can. I am Nnamdi Kanu.
“Anybody involved in any form of violence in the East in the name of IPOB is a goner, and they know it. Let me come out of this mess, only two minutes, there will be peace in the East,” he vowed.
Meanwhile, Kanu has asked the Federal High Court to transfer him to Kuje prison.
Kanu, who made the demand on Tuesday, alleged that the Department of State Services (DSS) had no medical facility to treat him, adding that there was a conspiracy for him to die in the DSS custody.
Speaking from the dock, shortly after his bail application was denied by trial Justice, Binta Nyako, Kanu alleged a conspiracy to allow him to die in custody of the secret police.
“People will come to see me; they will not allow them. They don’t have the medical facility. I have congestive heart failure; they are patching me up. My foot is swollen. I asked them to conduct surgery, and they said they couldn’t. There is a conspiracy for me to die in detention. I want to be transferred to Kuje,” he told the court.
Responding, the Judge said she had no confidence in keeping him in Kuje.
“The law says I can keep you anywhere I think is safe for you. If I make an order and it is not adhered to, you come back to me. I have over 15 terrorists that escaped from there. I don’t have confidence in Kuje prison,” Justice Nyako said.
Counsel for the defendant, Alloy Ejimakor, insisted that the DSS custody was no longer safe for Kanu. “The DSS is no longer a safe place. That takes away that it is a safe place for him. It is a glorified prison,” he added.
On his part, the counsel for the Federal Government, Adegboyega Awolomo (SAN), denied disobeying the order of the court on Kanu’s outfit. He argued that there was nowhere in the world anyone charged with terrorism was granted bail.
“With respect to the cloth, the ones they brought were not in accordance with your order, my lord,” he said.
Kanu passionately pleaded with the court to order that he should be placed on house arrest.
“My lord, since you don’t want me to go to Kuje, order that I should be placed on house arrest. That is done everywhere in the world. I want to adequately plan for my defence. I will defeat them in this same court. Where are the treason felony charges against me? They don’t have any evidence against me. Where did the terrorism charges come from?”, he pleaded.
Justice Nyako urged him to put his request into an application, adding that her court is a court of record. She subsequently adjourned the matter till April 17 for hearing.
THEWILL reported earlier that Justice Nyako dismissed the fresh application brought by Nnamdi Kanu, seeking his release on bail, pending the determination of the treasonable felony charge filed against him by the Federal Government.
Justice Nyako, who, however, ordered an accelerated hearing of the seven-count charge against Kanu, held that the court having dismissed a similar application, the only option now left for the IPOB leader was to challenge the decision at the Court of Appeal.
Meanwhile, the court has adjourned the trial until April 13.
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