IPOB leader pleads not guilty, case adjourned to February 16

By Tasie Theodore

The trial of the detained leader of the Independent People of Biafra, IPOB, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu has been adjourned to February 16 at the Federal High Court in Abuja, Nigeria’s Federal Capital, The Difference reports.

This is after the IPOB leader pleaded not guilty to the revised charges against him.

The trial which had been adjourned in December 2021, resumed yesterday even as the Federal Government of Nigeria amended the charge sheet to now slam a 15-count case against Kanu.

On his part, Kanu also adjusted his trial team which is now being led by Edo-born Chief Mike Ozekhome, SAN.

One of the expected highlights of the proceedings today was on whether Kanu would take his plea in response to the reading of the charges agains him. Now that he has pleaded not guilty, the door is now open for heightened legal brickbats to proceed.

There have been calls for a political resolution of the matter but both the Attorney General of the Federation, Mr Abubakar Malami, SAN and President Muhammadu Buhari are on record as having elected to pursue the path of judicial determination. But South East leaders are adamant that they would continue to pursue the path of non-judicial determination even as some analysts equally contend that the already opened up 2023 electoral campaigns process similarly heightens the possibility of a non-judicial resolution of the matter.

‘Who wants to go into a testy electoral process with such a massive albatross of a case on your hands,’ one commentator quipped?

Mazi Nnamdi Kanu