The Federal High Court, Abuja,
on Tuesday admitted the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB),
Nnamdi Kanu, to bail on health grounds.
In a brief ruling, Justice
Binta Nyako said that she was convinced that Kanu was ill and needed more
medical attention than the Nigerian Prisons was giving him.
“The first defendant, Nnamdi
Kanu, has appealed to the court for bail based on health grounds and it is only
the living that can stand trial.
“So I am minded to grant him
bail so that he can attend to his health and face his trial alive,” Nyako said.
She, however, ordered that
while on bail, Kanu must not hold any rallies, grant any interviews or be in a
crowd of more than 10 people.
Nyako gave other bail
conditions to include three sureties in the sum of N100 million each.
She added that one of the sureties
must be a senior highly placed person of Igbo extraction such as a senator.
The other surety must be a
highly respected Jewish leader since Kanu said his religion was Judaism, while
the third person must be a highly respected person who owns landed property and
is resident in Abuja.
The judge further ordered that
Kanu must deposit both his Nigerian and British passports with the court and
that a report on the progress of his health must be made available to her on a
monthly basis.
However, she refused bail to
the three other defendants standing trial with Kanu, namely Chidiebere
Onwudiwe, Benjamin Madubugwu and David Nwawuisi.
The judge maintained that the
only reason she admitted Kanu to bail was because of his ill health.
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She said that although the
charge of terrorism had been struck out against the defendants, the charge of a
treasonable felony hanging over them was a very serious offence.
She also refused a second
application by the three defendants seeking a review of her earlier ruling that
witnesses who were security personnel should be protected.
She said although the
defendants had made the application for variation of the ruling based on the
grounds that the charge of terrorism had been dropped, the charge of
treasonable felony was equally a grave one.
Based on this, she said she
would stick to her earlier ruling that as long as the witnesses were security
personnel, they would testify behind a curtain or wear a mask. She adjourned
the matter till July 11 and 12, for a definite commencement of trial.
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