FG Amends Charges Against Nnamdi Kanu

The Nigerian government has amended its charges against Nnamdi Kanu, the detained leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB.

The filing of the amended 7-count comes ahead of the resumption of Kanu’s trial in Abuja on Thursday, October 21.

Filed by the office of the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, the amended charges accuse Kanu of treasonable felony and acts of terrorism.

IPOB has threatened to impose a month-long sit-at-home order on the Southeast if Kanu is not produced in Court on Thursday.

Also, the Pan-Igbo sociocultural organization, Ohanaeze has demanded that Kanu be produced in Court when his trial resumes in two days’ time.

The amended charges brought against Kanu include a fresh allegation that he had issued a deadly threat that anyone that flouted his sit-at-home order should write his or her will.

According to the government, as a result of Kanu’s directive, banks, schools, markets, shopping malls, fuel stations were not opened for businesses, with vehicular movements grounded in the South East region of the country.

The government averred that this was an offence in contravention of and punishable under 1(2) (b) of the Terrorism Prevention Amendment Act, 2013.

The government also that Kanu, “on or about the 28th April, 2015 in London, United Kingdom done 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”.

Kanu was also 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

Also, between 2018 and 2021, he was accused, 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.

The FG accused Kanu of having, on April 22, 2021, in London, United Kingdom, on Radio Biafra, monitored in Enugu and other parts of Nigeria, undertaken an act of terrorism “in that you incited 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, and you, thereby, committed an offence contrary to and punishable under section 1 (2) (h) of the Terrorism Prevention Amendment Act, 2013.”