Judge excuses self from Nnamdi Kanu's Treason case

Justice Ahmed Mohammed of the Federal High Court Abuja has excused himself from hearing the treason charges filed against Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra by the Federal Government. Justice Mohammed's decision comes after Nnamdi Kanu this morning objected to the judge hearing the six count charge filed against him by the Federal government.

Kanu during court hearing argued that the hearing will be an exercise in futility as officials of the Department of State Security will not obey any order in his favor.

“Thank you very much my lordship, but my objection is that I will not receive a fair trial before this court. The information I got is that I will not receive a fair trial before this court. I will not sacrifice the due process of law because of speedy court process over the principle of natural process on the altar of speedy release. In other words, I would rather remain in detention than subject myself to a trial that I know amounts to perversion of justice. Your lordship, previous court rulings have been given by courts of competent jurisdiction in this country, Nigeria which were not carried out by the DSS"he said

Counsel to the Federal government who is also the Federal Director of Prosecution, office of the Attorney General, Mohamed Diri, argued that based on section 396 (2) of the constitution, Kanu had no right to object to being tried by the court until after the plea is heard. However Diri's submission was overruled by the judge because according to him, Kanu had the right to reject the trial, “after all justice is rooted on confidence”.

“If any of the parties has no confidence in the court, he has the right to say so”, the judge said. He added that the prosecution would have done the same thing if they were in Kanu’s shoes. “Assuming it was the prosecution, if they had no confidence in the court of jurisdiction; would they not have done so? I hereby remit the case file to the honorable chief judge of this court to reassign it” the judge said.

Kanu is being tried on a six count charge which treason.