The State Security Service (SSS), on Wednesday, told the Federal High Court in Abuja that Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), cannot wear clothes with an insignia of a lion’s head.
Mr Kanu was accused of various offences, including treasonable felony and terrorism, offences he allegedly committed in the course of his separatist campaigns.
At the resumption of proceedings on Wednesday, Mr Kanu’s lead counsel, Mike Ozekhome, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, drew the trial judge, Binta Nyako’s attention to the difficulties being encountered in trying to get new clothes to the IPOB leader at the spy agency’s detention facility in Abuja.
Mrs Nyako had ordered the SSS to allow Mr Kanu change his clothes from the regular Fendi jumpsuit he had been wearing to court.
Responding to Mr Ozekhome’s complaint, the judge asked the Director of Legal Services of the SSS, whom this newspaper could not ascertain his name, to provide explanations to the issue.
“My Lord, clothes that were brought for the defendant had lion’s head embroiled on them, and the defendant (Mr Kanu) can’t wear clothes with a lion’s head,” he said.
The secret service’s lawyer explained that “clothes with lion’s head offend the standard operating procedures” of the SSS.
But Mr Kanu insisted on donning the Igbo ethnic attire which carries an insignia of a lion’s head, a typical dress worn by IPOB members in Nigeria’s southeastern region.
The IPOB leader is being prosecuted on a 15-count amended charge before the Federal High Court in Abuja.ⓘ
He was rearrested last June reportedly in Kenya and brought back to Nigeria, an action his lawyers termed “extraordinary rendition” by the Nigerian government.
The federal government filed the amended charges raising the number of counts from seven to 15 to incorporate terrorism offences he allegedly committed through broadcasts while he was abroad.
Credit: Premium Times