Nnamdi Kanu files contempt against AGF, DSS

The leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra Nnamdi Kanu has taken a step to ensure the federal government and the Department of State Services and the attorney general of the federation to obey court order mandating his unconditional release from Kuje Prison.  

In a fresh move, Kanu has initiated a suit for contempt proceedings against the federal government, the attorney general of the federation and the director general of DSS. A statement by Kanu’s counsel Ifeanyi Ejiofor said the proceedings filed before a Federal Capital territory High Court in Maitama is expected to commit the respondents for non-execution of the court order given by Justice Adeniyi Ademola of the Federal High Court in Abuja on December 17, 2015. Kanu was first arrested by the DSS in Lagos on his return from United Kingdom on October 14, 2015. Following his arrest, the DSS arraigned him before a Magistrate Court in Wuse Zone 2 in Abuja.

However, the Magistrate granted the IPOB leader bail and later acquitted him of all charges against him. But the DSS approached the Federal High Court where the agency obtained a remand order to detain him for 90 days following terrorism investigations carried out on him, a move Kanu’s counsel described as “surreptitious”.

 The remand order – an exparte order – was obtained in pursuant to relevant sections of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA), 2015. Subsequently, after hearing a motion on notice praying the court to set aside the exparte order made on the November 10, 2015 together with a counter affidavit filed by the DSS, Justice Ademola made another order setting aside the exparte remand order.

 Upon vacation of the remand order, the court in a similar order to that of the Magistrate Court also directed the DSS to unconditionally release Kanu. “Few days after the order was made, President Muhammadu Buhari, during a presidential media chat, said that Nnamdi Kanu cannot be granted bail by any Court in Nigeria,” the statement said.