Court remands IPOB leader Kanu in DSS custody till July 26

Rearrested and extradited leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, will be remanded in the custody of the Department of State Services (DSS) till July 26, a Federal High Court in Abuja has ruled.

The court granted the order on Tuesday when Kanu was re-arraigned on charges bothering on alleged treason.

Presiding judge, Binta Nyako, said Kanu should be remanded in the DSS custody pending the determination of his trial.

Kanu is facing treasonable felony charges in a suit instituted against him at the Federal High Court in Abuja in response to years of campaign for the independent Republic of Biafra through IPOB.

He was granted bail in April 2017 for health reasons but jumped bail after flouting some of the conditions given to him by the court.

He has also been on the run since then after soldiers raided his father’s residence in Abia State.

IPOB was later declared a terrorist group by the defence headquarters and the court after the South-East governors proscribed it.

Despite the court’s insistence on his appearance, the IPOB leader had remained abroad, and once said he jumped bail to pursue the cause of Biafra.

“Their problem is Nnamdi Kanu and the solution to their problem is referendum. They gave me conditional bail to cage me and IPOB but I refused,” he had said during a broadcast.

Owing to his absence in court, Binta Nyako, the judge who granted him bail, revoked it and ordered that he should be arrested.

Kanu, however, dismissed the arrest warrant issued against him and vowed to remain abroad to continue agitating for Biafra.

In Kanu’s absence, IPOB went underground and mobilised resources to launch a militant named the Eastern Security Network (ESN).

The emergence of ESN coincided with a spike in attacks against security and government infrastructure in the South-East.