The trial of incarcerated Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) leader Nnamdi Kanu has been postponed until January 19, 2022, by Justice Binta Nyako of the Federal High Court in Abuja.
The court was adjourned after Kanu’s legal team staged a walkout over the refusal of Department of State Services (DSS) operatives to let some of them into the courtroom.
Kanu, who was taken into the courtroom at 9:52 a.m., had lamented the refusal of security officials to let several members of his legal team, particularly his American counsel, Bruce Fein, to enter the courtroom shortly after his case was called up.
Mr. Fein, who he claimed was handling a case for him in the United States, was present at the IPOB leader’s trial, he told the court.
Kanu said no when asked by the judge if he was willing to conduct the proceedings alone in the absence of his lawyers.
Meanwhile, FG’s lawyer, Mister Mohamed Abubakar, who is also the Director of Public Prosecution, requested the court to continue the trial even if Kanu’s lawyers were not present.
Normally, Abubakar told the court, the subject would be set for a hearing on an application made by the defendant.
He claimed that Kanu’s ongoing application should be deemed abandoned because Kanu’s lead counsel, Mr. Ifeanyi Ejiofor, who was initially inside the courtroom, stepped out with his team soon before the judge arrived.
Though Justice Nyako voiced his unhappiness with Kanu’s lawyers’ behaviour, she refused to dismiss the pending application and instead delayed the matter for trial until January 19 and 20, 2022.