Justice James Omotosho of the Federal High Court, Abuja, has given the Biafra nation agitator, Nnamdi Kanu till Monday October 27 to open his defence in the ongoing terrorism charges brought against him.
The judge fixed a new date on Friday, October 24, following the complaint by Kanu that his former lawyers led by a former Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Kanu Agabi(SAN) has not released his case file to him to study.
The proceedings opened with Mr. Adegboyeaga Awomolo (SAN), counsel for the Federal Government, informing the court that the day’s business was to hear Nnamdi Kanu’s defence, per the standing court order.
But the defence table was empty.
Kanu, armed with a stack of documents, stepped into the dock to announce he was representing himself.
He told the judge that after sacking his legal team on October 23rd, they had yet to release the case file.
This forced him to request an adjournment, arguing he couldn’t prepare a proper defense without access to his own documents.
He also outlined his plan to call 23 witnesses, some of whom would be coming from abroad.
To facilitate this, he asked the court to compel the Department of State Service (DSS) to grant these foreign witnesses access to him.
A separate request to the judge—to order the DSS to allow his lawyers access even on non-working days—was immediately granted.
The Federal Government’s counsel immediately challenged Kanu’s claim, calling it “strange,” pointing out that Kanu had been in court with those same former lawyers for hours.
Awomolo also reminded the Judge of the six days issued to Kanu to open and close defense and urged the court to strictly adhere to the order.
Justice James Omotosho, in a brief response, said he was mindful of granting adjournment because of Kanu’s claim of not having the case file.
The judge said that the allegations that Kanu Agabi did not release the case file was strange and unbelievable but that he would oblige the defendant an adjournment.
He, however, warned against undue delay especially wastage of the judicial time of the court, adding that several other cases have suffered delay because of Kanu’s case.
The judge subsequently fixed Monday, October 27 for the defendant to open his defence.
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