By Paul Adaji (ABUJA) –
After four years of being on the run, the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, was this afternoon arraigned before a Federal High Court in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja on charges of treasonable felony.
Kanu was arrested and brought back to Nigeria on Sunday by the nation’s security agencies, in collaboration with Interpol, according to Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami.
The Government of President Muhammadu Buhari had in September 2018, proscribed IPOB, a separatist organization from Nigeria’s South-East in Nigeria on charges of being a terrorist organisation.
Kanu, who was granted bail after a long period of detention, fled the country in September 2017 in the wake of an invasion of his father’s in Afara-Ukwu, near the capital of Abia State, Umuahia. He remained very critical of the Nigerian government, which has continued to accuse him of masterminding the wave of criminal activities in the South-East region including recent attack on police facilities and killing of its personnel.
Malami told journalists in Abuja today Kanu would be arraigned in court in continuation of his trial on charges of unlawful possession of firearms and management of an unlawful society.
At the Federal High Court, where he was brought under tight security, Justice Binta Nyako, ordered that the IPOB leader be remanded in detention under the custody of the Department of State Services (DSS), while adjourning the case to July 26, 2021 for continuation of trial.