The Federal Government has explained why it can’t comply with the court ruling ordering the release of the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Nnamdi Kanu.
The government told the Appeal Court in Abuja that Kanu represented a flight risk and was a danger to national security.
An Assistant State Counsel in the office of the Attorney-General of the Federation, David Kaswe, informed the court that the argument against Kanu verged on national security.
He contended that the fundamental rights of the IPOB leader ought to be suspended because of national interest.
Kaswe said: “It is important to appreciate the gamut of depositions in our application. The Respondent is a flight risk person and one of the grounds of our application is that this matter touches on national security of the State.
“Once there is a threat to national security, human rights of any individual can be suspended until such threat is taken care of.”
Kaswe likewise informed the court that releasing Kanu would worsen the security circumstance in the South East.
“The defendant has shown that he has the capacity to jump bail or to escape from lawful custody.
“There is reasonable intelligence that the enforcement of judgement of this court, pending determination of our appeal at the Supreme Court, may impact negatively on the declining security in the South East,” he said.
A few weeks ago, the Appeal Court had discharged and acquitted Kanu of all terrorism charges.
Notwithstanding the court’s ruling, the Federal Government has refused to release the IPOB leader.
The AGF, Abubakar Malami, had indicated that more charges would be evened out against Kanu; subsequently he can’t be released.
Kanu has been locked up by the Department of State Services, DSS, since June 2021.
He was arrested in Kenya and subjected to extraordinary rendition.
Upon his return, the Federal Government summoned him on charges boarding on terrorism.
The IPOB leader was first arrested in 2017 because of his agitation for the actualization of Biafra.
Justice Binta Nyako of an Abuja Federal High Court had granted him bail.
Not long after Kanu was released, he escaped the country to Europe where he proceeded with his Biafra agitation.
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