There is a conspiracy for me to die in detention, Kanu alleges

…South-East Rep members kick as Court reject Kanu’s bail request, ask for case discontinuation in the interest of the public, justice

Detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Nnamdi Kanu, has alleged that there is a conspiracy for him to die in detention asking to be “transferred to Kuje”.

Kanu, who is currently in custody of the Department of State Services (DSS), said he has a very serious health condition that could not be handled in his present detention centre.

According to him, the DSS lacked the medical facilities required for his treatment.

He told the Federal High Court in Abuja on Tuesday, that he should be transferred to Kuje prison.

Kanu whose request for bail was refused, informed the court that his ailment had to do with the heart, a situation he said had started manifesting in his physical appearance, especially his feet.

Besides, he decried that the security agency had continued to restrict his visitors from having access to him.

Speaking from the dock, shortly after his bail application was denied by trial Justice, Binta Nyako, Kanu alleged a conspiracy to allow him to die in custody of the secret police.

He said, “People will come to see me; they will not allow them. They don’t have the medical facility. I have congestive heart failure; they are patching me up.

“My foot is swollen. I asked them to conduct surgery, and they said they couldn’t.

“There is a conspiracy for me to die in detention. I want to be transferred to Kuje,” he told the court.

Moments after the court dismissed his fresh application to be released on bail pending the determination of the treasonable felony charge the FG preferred against him, Kanu promised to restore peace in the south-East region of Nigeria.

Justice Nyako had earlier expressed her displeasure over how the trial had been conducted since 2015.

“This is exactly the way this case has been going since 2015. I am talking to both sides. You always find a way to truncate the proceedings,” the judge fumed.

However, irked with today’s ruling, Kanu opined: “They know me very well. I suspect that people in government are complicit. They are making money with insecurity. If they know Nnamdi Kanu is outside in two minutes this nonsense will stop.

“Who is the idiot that will speak when I am talking. Who is the fool? Who is the idiot I ask? That I will give an order in the east and any idiot will counter it, who is the bastard I am asking you?

“Nobody can, I am Nnamdi Kanu, who is the idiot. Let me come out of this nonsense, this mess, two minutes only. Only two minutes I guarantee you and there will be peace in the east. Everywhere in the south-east if not the entire south”.

In actual fact, Southeasterners have witnessed insecurity ranging from kidnapping, armed robbery, cultism, killings, etc since the arrest and detention of Kanu by the Department of State Service, DSS.

More pronounced was the killing of the late Dora Akunyili’s husband Dr. Chike Akunyili in Anambra state.

Late Chike was gruesomely murdered alongside his driver and a police escort around the Nkpor junction in Idemili North, Anambra State by gunmen.

He was said to have been returning from an event where he received a posthumous award of excellence for his late wife when he ran into the hoodlums at Nkpor and was shot and killed.

Another incident was the attack on Senator Ifeanyi Uba’s convoy that killed about 5 persons.

The police in Anambra State said five people were killed, when gunmen attacked the convoy of Nigerian Senator, Ifeanyi Ubah.

These gunmen ambushed the senator’s convoy and opened fire on them, killing some police officers and aides of the senator in the convoy.

The incident happened on Sunday evening in Enugwu-Ukwu, a community in Njikoka Local Government Area of Anambra State, Nigeria’s South-east.

The above are not the only despicable thing that has happened to south-east, a lot more has happened due to insecurity in the region.

Recall, the IPOB leader who was first arrested by security agents in Lagos on October 14, 2015, has been in detention since June 29, 2021.

Trial Justice Nyako had on April 25, 2017, granted him bail on health ground, after he had spent about 18 months in detention.

Upon the perfection of the bail conditions, he was on April 28, 2017, released from the Kuje prison.

However, midway into the trial, the IPOB leader escaped from the country after soldiers invaded his country home at Afara Ukwu Ibeku in Umuahia, Abia State, an operation that led to the death of some of his followers.

Kanu was later re-arrested in Kenya on June 19, 2021, and extraordinarily renditioned back to the country by security agents on June 27, 2021.

Following the development, the trial court, on June 29, 2021, remanded him in custody of the Department of State Services, DSS, where he remained till date.

On April 8, 2022, the court struck out eight out of the 15-count charge that FG preferred against him on the premise that they lacked substance.

Likewise, the Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal, on October 13, 2022, ordered Kanu’s immediate release from detention even as it quashed the charge against him.

The appellate court said it was satisfied that FG flagrantly violated all known laws, when it forcefully rendered Kanu from Kenya to the country for the continuation of his trial.

It held that such arbitrary use of power by the Nigerian government, divested the trial court of the jurisdiction to further try the Appellant.

Dissatisfied with the decision, FG took the matter before the Supreme Court, even as it persuaded the appellate court to suspend the execution of the judgement, pending the determination of its appeal.

While deciding the appeal, the Supreme Court, on December 15, 2023, vacated the judgement of the appellate court and gave FG the nod to try the IPOB leader on the subsisting seven-count charge.

Meanwhile, members of the House of Representatives from the South-East region, led by Hon. Ikenga Ugochinyere, described the rejection of the bail application of Kanu, as another major setback in the healing process and return of peace in the region.

The South-East lawmakers, who were also in court, led by Hon. Ikenga Imo Ugochinyere, Hon. Obi Aguocha, and leader of the opposition party, said they received the rejection of the bail application with sadness, adding that if it was granted, it would have been the beginning of healing process in the region.

Ugochinyere who represents Ideato South and North in the House, however, appealed to President Bola Tinubu to invoke the relevant section of the Constitution to discontinue Kanu’s trial.

He said, “We received the news of the rejection of the bail with sadness and we just lost an opportunity to commence the process of healing in our land. That bail application, if granted, would have brought an opportunity to open doors for discussion to bring about peace in the South East.

“Just few weeks back, the federal government discontinued the criminal charge filed against Omoyele Sowore. I’m also aware that the federal government has allowed Sunday Igboho back home.

“It’s so painful that when it’s the turn of an Igbo man, the story is always different.

“What the president should do and the Attorney-General in particular, is to invoke the power invested on him under section 174 of the 1999 Constitution to discontinue the matter”, he said.

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