Detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu has lined up top Nigerian citizens including a former Minister of Defence, Gen. Theophilus Danjuma (rtd), a former Chief of Army Staff, Gen.Tukur Buratai (rtd), as well as Governors Babajide Sanwo-Olu and Hope Uzodinma, of Lagos and Imo States respectively as his witnesses in the terrorism charges against him.
He further listed current Minister of the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA), Nyesom Nwike, his Works’ counterpart, Dave Umahi, and the immediate past governor of Abia State, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu.
He also listed the immediate past Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, SAN, the immediate past Director General of the National Intelligence Agency, NIA, Ahmed Rufai Abubakar, his then-collegue at the State Security Service, SSS, Yusuf Magaji Bichi, and several withnesses whose identities he didn’t reveal.
This is contained in a fresh motion he filed on Tuesday October 21, wherein, he assured the court that he was prepared to begin his defence “pursuant to the order of this honourable court made on the 16th day of October 2015, directing the defendant to commence his defence on October 24, 2025.”
In the said document, Kanu informed the court of his plan to call a total of 23 witnesses divided into two categories. The first category, he said, would be those he called “ordinary but material witnesses”.
He further informed the court that his second category of witnesses would be “vital and compellable” and shall be “summoned under Section 232 of the Evidence Act, 2011.”
The compellable witnesses are former Minister of Defence, Gen. Theophilus Danjuma (rtd), a former Chief of Army Staff, Gen.Tukur Buratai (rtd), as well as Governors Babajide Sanwo-Olu and Hope Uzodinma, of Lagos and Imo States respectively.
He prayed the court to grant him a 90- day time frame to enable him conclude his defence.
Specifically, the IPOB leader said, he would “testify on his own behalf, providing a sworn account of the facts, denying the allegations, and explaining the political context of his statements and actions.”
Kanu, in the notice, promised to “provide the sworn statements of all voluntary witnesses to this honourable court, and to notify the prosecution within a reasonable time.”
He assured that “no precious time of the honourable court would be delayed,” stressing, “and it would interest the honourable court that and the general public that justice is not only done but manifestly seen to have been done.”
Meanwhile, there is speculation that Kanu may have fired his team of lawyers led by Kanu Agabi (SAN).
Credit: The Sun