UNDERSTANDING WHAT HAPPENED IN COURT YESTERDAY IN NNAMDI KANU'S CASE

By Aguocha Chinwendu

I was in court today for Nnamdi Kanu case. I was shocked by some of the things I heard coming from lawyers and the judge. By the way, Nigerians must commend the judge for her ruling today. You know that the Nigerian Government had filed 11- count charges against Nnamdi Kanu and his co-defendants. One of those charges was that he allegedly called the President of Nigerian an idiot.



The judge struck out 6 out of the 11 counts. It is interesting to understand the charges that were struck and the ones that remained. As you know, the Government charged Nnamdi Kanu and others with (1) Conspiracy to Commit Treason, (2) Treason, (3) Belonging to Unlawful Society, (4) Hoisting a Transmitter on a Mast, (5) Calling President Buhari an idiot, (6) Importing things without declaring them to the Customs, etc

Right from the beginning, a discerning mind knew that the Treasonable charges were just bogus. There was no evidence to support the treasonable charges. So, it is a big offense without evidence. No one believes they would get anywhere with such bogus charges. Indeed, the only reason for those big charges was just to ensure that Nnamdi Kanu would be denied bail. They just wanted to punish him. However, with respect to the smaller charges, it looked as it they might have some slim chance with those little offenses.

But today, the court dismissed most of the little charges. The dramatic moment was when the Judge got to the offense charged as belonging to unlawful society. The Judge stated that there was no evidence to suggest that IPOB was an unlawful society. This is very important. If IPOB is not an unlawful society, then it means that all those arrests going on all over the South East whereby the police an the DSS would break into meetings and arrest and even kill people on the ground that they belonged to IPOB and that IPOB was an unlawful society is wrong.

IPOB is not an unlawful society and the court said it today. And it is therefore not unlawful for anybody to belong to IPOB.
The Court allowed the big bogus charges to remain. In a way, it was a good development for Nnamdi and co. The charges where the government might have had any chances were struck. And the charges where they would have had no chance remains. For instance, the charge that he called the President an idiot will be easily addressed by the Constitutional provision on free speech. It is not a crime to call the President names.

And by the way, those people who call me names on Facebook, be careful. You call me fraudster. You call me wife-snatcher. You call me lover of women, etc. If I catch you, it is straight to Kuje prison.