By Kenny Folowosele, Abuja
A mild drama played up at the Federal High Court Abuja yesterday when the detained leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPoB), Nnamdi Kanu, told Justice Binta Nyako to recuse herself from his trial.
Kanu is currently facing a terrorism charges levelled against him by the federal government.
But at yesterday’s proceedings, the leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPoB) had jumped up from the dock in the middle of the trial and yelled at his lawyer, Aloy Ejimakor, after which he pounced on the trial Judge, Justice Binta Nyako.
At the top of his voice, Kanu faced the judge and told her he had no confidence in getting justice for the treasonable charges she was handling.
Kanu said, “Let me tell you right away, I do not have confidence in your court. I do not have trust in you.”
The development made the presiding Judge recuse herself immediately by opting out of the trial.
Kanu pointedly said he lacked confidence and trust in the Judge for justice.
While Ejimako was reluctant to sit down, Kanu repeatedly shouted, “Sit down. I say, sit down there. Sit down; it is my order.”
As the mild drama continued, the visibly embarrassed counsel reluctantly returned to his seat.
He said, “I demand that you immediately recuse yourself. The federal government of Nigeria has no jurisdiction to prefer terrorism charges against me. You know the truth, but you don’t want to say it.
“You are pretending that you don’t know that the Nigerian government has no right, no jurisdiction to file these charges against me. You are biased against me “, he said while shouting in the open court.
The Biafra nation agitator also turned to the federal government lawyer, Chief Adegboyega Awomolo SAN, who accused him of doing the federal government’s bidding against the law.
He said he could only be charged with any criminal offence in the United Kingdom where the alleged offence was committed.
But countering, the federal government’s lawyer objected to Kanu’s demand, arguing that Kanu’s outburst in the open court was just an observation in the face of the Supreme Court order that he should be prosecuted in the remaining seven count charges against him.
He then pleaded with the Judge to discountenance Kanu’s outburst as an incompetent observation and allow him to open the federal government case against the defendant.
However, in a brief remark, Justice Binta Nyako said she would prefer another judge to handle the trial, saying the Supreme Court order notwithstanding.
Justice Nyako said, “I don’t have problems recusing myself. I will be happy to do so. If a defendant can shout his lawyer down and hold up proceedings in this way, what is then left for the court?
“I have more than 700 cases in my docket to attend to. Kanu’s own is just one of them. Let him go to another judge. I have delivered 24 rulings in this matter alone.
The Judge subsequently recused herself while ruling on the matter minutes after the drama and, in her ruling, ordered that the case file be returned to the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Justice John Tsoho, for reassignment to another judge.
Before Kanu’s outbursts on the trial, the FG had announced that it was ready to open its case against the defendant and that the required witnesses were in court.
Awomolo SAN, while arguing, asked the court to permit him to call his first witness and for the witness to be shielded from the public for security reasons.
But raising an objection, Kanu’s lawyer faulted the commencement of the trial, saying that they had not prepared Kanu for any trial.
Ejimako said that DSS did not give him privacy to discuss his client’s situation, adding that the room offered him to discuss was dirty and that a foreigner employed by them to clean up the room was disallowed by the security agency.
He claimed further that he had filed three separate appeals against the earlier decisions of the high court, two of which challenged the court’s jurisdiction, and the third one was on bail.
He demanded that the trial be held until the Court of Appeal determined the three appeals.
However, his request was turned down because the Administration of Criminal Justice Act 2015 did not permit the grant of such a request.
Kanu was taken to the DSS custody to continue his detention until the Chief Judge reassigned the case to another judge.
