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The detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Mazi Nnamdi Kanu has pleaded not guilty to the seven-count amended charge proffered against him by the Federal Government.
Kanu took his plea before the trial judge, Justice Binta Nyako on Thursday.
When asked to take his plea after the charges were read to him in the court, he said he was innocent of all the allegations levelled against him.
The Federal Government had in the amended charge marked FHC/ABJ/CR/383/2015 and signed by a team of government lawyers alleged that Kanu, in an act of terrorism, issued a deadly sit-at-home directive following which transports, banks, schools, markets, shopping malls, fuel stations were not allowed to open for businesses in the South East region of the country.
It said the action amounted to an offence contrary to and punishable under 1(2) (b) of the Terrorism Prevention Amendment Act, 2013.
It further alleged: “On or about the 28th April, 2015 in London, United Kingdom did in a broadcast on Radio Biafra monitored in Enugu, Enugu state and other parts of Nigeria within the jurisdiction of this honourable court, referred to Major General Muhammadu Buhari, GCON, President and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as a paedophile, a terrorist, an idiot and an embodiment of evil, knowing same to be false and you thereby committed an offence contrary to section 375 of the Criminal Code Act, Cap C. 38 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004.”
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He was alleged to have committed treasonable felony, an offence punishable under Section 41(C) of the Criminal Code Act, CAP C38 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria
He was alleged to had between 2018 and 2021, through Radio Biafra, professed to be a member of IPOB, a proscribed organization in Nigeria, and thereby committed an offence punishable under section 16 of the Terrorism Prevention Amendment Act, 2013.
In count five of the charge, it was alleged that Kanu had on April 22, 2021, in London, the United Kingdom, on Radio Biafra monitored in Enugu and other parts of Nigeria, did an act of terrorism “in that you incite the other members (followers) of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), a proscribed organization in Nigeria, to look for security personnel, their family members through a Radio Biafra on 102.1FM monitored through the IPOB Community Radio.
“You, thereby, committed an offence contrary to and punishable under section 1 (2) (h) of the Terrorism Prevention Amendment Act, 2013,” the charge stated.
