A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, on Wednesday, struck out six of the eleven count criminal charges brought against leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.
Six out of the eleven count criminal charges the Federal Government filed against Kanu and three others, were quashed by Justice Binta Nyako of the Abuja Federal High Court.
Justice Nyako held that the six charges were not supported by the proof of evidence the prosecution adduced against the defendants.
However, the court sustained five other charges against the IPOB leader and three other pro-Biafra agitators – Chidiebere Onwudiwe, Benjamin Madubugwu and David Nwawuisi.
The five sustained charges border on conspiracy, treasonable felony, publication of defamatory matter and Kanu’s alleged importation of goods contrary and punishable under section 47(2) (a) of the Customs and Excise Management Act, Cap C45, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004.
Kanu entered a fresh plea of not guilty of the five charges.
Justice Nyako said in her ruling that there was no evidence before the court to prove that IPOB was an unlawful society.
The federal government alleged in three of the remaining charges that Kanu had in a broadcast he made in London on April 28, 2015, through Radio Biafra, referred to President Muhammadu Buhari as “a paedophile, a terrorist, an idiot and an embodiment of evil.”
Meantime, March 20 and 21 have been fixed for commencement of full-blown trial of the defendants.
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