The Federal Government has withdrawn six amended charges of treasonable felony preferred against the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu.
Prosecution counsel, K. E. Kaswe, withdrew the charges on Wednesday after Mr Kanu’s team of lawyers led by Mike Ozekhome accused the government of deliberately frustrating the speedy determination of the case.
Mr Ozekhome noted that the amended charges were served on him, barely 48 hours to the court proceeding.
“My lord, in one of the attachments, pictures of lawyers waiting to have a meeting with the defendant at the DSS facility, were snapped with secret camera and displayed.
“Names of his lawyers- Ifeanyi Ejiofor and Maxwell Opara- were also mentioned. They have brought new issues and even changed the wordings of the charge. The fact that the court sustained only seven counts in the previous charge and the have now reduced it to six counts, means that the charge has already been altered,” Ozekhome told the Federal High Court in Abuja.
He, therefore, said it was wrong for the prosecution to insist on proceeding with trial, without firstly re-arraigning the defendant.
On this note, the prosecution withdrew the amended charges and they were struck out by Justice Binta Nyako.
