DSS Says Fresh Charge of Treasonable Felony Will Keep Kanu in Custody
The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and Director of Radio Biafra, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, is not going home soon, because the Department of State Services (DSS), where he is currently being held, said it was preparing a fresh charge against him.
On two occasions, first by the Magistrate Court, Abuja and second by the Federal High Court, also in Abuja, the pro-Biafran leader had been asked to go home, but was refused his freedom by the agency. Our Correspondent who has been following the case gathered last night that the agency has already prepared fresh charges of treasonable felony, with which to charge him to court on Monday, after denying him freedom twice on account of court orders, which declared him free to go home.
Just as was reported on Friday, the DSS had told Kanu’s lawyers, who had come to effect his release after obtaining the enrolment order of the Abuja court presided over by Justice Adeniyi Ademola, on Thursday, that their Director General who was going to sign the papers, was not in the office and they should go and be contacted.
But, when they were eventually contacted, they were confronted with a different scenario, in which Kanu was handed over the fresh charges, one that would probably keep him behind bars for a long time, because the offence is not bailable.
A reliable source, who narrated what transpired at the DSS office on Friday, said: “You know about how they claimed that their DG was not in the office and we should go and come back. Well, as we suspected, it was a kind of hedging and bidding for time. By the time they asked us to come back, and we did, they brought Kanu out and handed him the papers containing the charges. After going through it, he handed it over to the lawyer and behold, it was treasonably felony. You know the offence is not bailable.
“So, when we asked them about the order for his release, they said that it would be signed immediately the DG returned and we would in turn sign the new charges and that Kanu would be taken to court on Monday, and would not be leaving because of the new charges. That is the new twist.
“Something sinister is actually happening in this country at the moment. We are in for a new era of dictatorship in which court orders are disobeyed wantonly. One would have thought that they would have taken advantage of the court to create a situation where everybody would have been on an even keel to make peace. With the court order, nobody would lose face and the condition for dialogue and peace would be established.
“You have already seen the number of people who have died as a result. Just for celebrating that their leader has been released, five people were killed. These are children of people. They are Nigerians. So, what do they want to achieve if not to induce violence and chaos in Nigeria. It is only God that can save Nigeria at this time.”