Justice Binta Nyako of a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has recused herself from the trial of the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, in the alleged terrorism charges preferred against him by the Federal Government.
The decision of the judge to excuse herself from the trial followed Kanu’s interruption of the proceedings and announced that he no longer had confidence in her and demanded that she recuse himself immediately.
Kanu spoke from the dock at the resumed proceedings in the seven-count terrorism charge preferred against him by the Federal Government.
While his lawyer, Mr. Alloy Ejimakor, was trying to persuade the court to suspend the trial on the basis that his client was denied the opportunity to prepare his defence, Kanu got up from his seat and ordered him to sit down.
“Sit down. I say you should sit down; it is my order,” Kanu shouted at his lawyer from the dock.
Continuing, he said: “My lord, I have no confidence in this court any more and I ask you to recuse yourself because you did not abide by the decision of the Supreme Court.
“I can understand it if the DSS refuse to obey a court order, but for this court to refuse to obey an order of the Supreme Court is regrettable.
“I am asking you to recuse yourself from this case,” Kanu told Justice Nyako.
Looking at the judge in the face, Kanu said, “Let me tell you right away; I do not have confidence in this in your court. I do not trust in you.
“I demand that you immediately recuse yourself from this matter. The federal government of Nigeria has no jurisdiction to prefer terrorism charges against me. You know the truth, but you don’t want to say it.
“You are pretending that you don’t know that the Nigerian government has no right and no jurisdiction to file these charges against me. You are biased against me,” he said while shouting in the open court.
The IPOB leader also turned to the federal government’s lawyer, Chief Adegboyega Awomolo, SAN, and accused him of doing the federal government’s bidding against the law and added that he can only be charged with any criminal offence in the United Kingdom where the alleged offence was committed.
Owomolo, however, objected to Kanu’s demand that the judge recuse herself and argued that Kanu’s outburst in the open court was just an observation in the face of the Supreme Court order that he should be prosecuted in the remaining seven-count charges against him.
He pleaded with the judge to discountenance the outburst of Kanu as an incompetent observation and allow him to open the federal government case against the defendant.
In a brief remark, Justice Nyako said she would prefer another judge to handle the trial, the Supreme Court order notwithstanding.
“I don’t have problems recusing myself. In fact, I will be happy to do so. If a defendant can shout his own lawyer down and hold up proceedings in this way, what is then left for the court?.
”I have more than 700 cases in my docket to attend to. Kanu’s own is just one of them. Let him go to another judge. I have delivered 24 rulings in this matter alone.
In her ruling, the judge subsequently recused herself and ordered that the case file be returned to the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Justice John Tsoho, for reassignment to another judge.
Earlier, Awolowo had announced that he was ready to open the case of the Federal Government against the defendant and that the required witnesses were in court.
He asked the court to permit him to call his first witness and that the witness be shielded from the public for security reasons.
In a reaction, Kanu’s lawyer, Ejimakor, objected to the commencement of the trial, adding that they had not prepared Kanu for any trial.
He said he was not given privacy by DSS to discuss with his client, adding that the room offered him to discuss was dirty and that a foreigner employed by them to clean up the room was disallowed by the security agency.
Besides, he claimed he had filed three separate appeals against the earlier decisions of the high court, with two of them challenging the jurisdiction of the court while the third one was on bail.
Ejimakor demanded that the trial be put on hold till the determination of the three appeals by the Court of Appeal.
His request was, however, turned down on the ground that the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA) 2015 did not permit granting such a request.
Meanwhile, Kanu has been taken back into the custody of the DSS for continuation of his detention till the Chief Judge reassigns the case to another judge.
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