Justice John Tsoho of the Federal High Court, Abuja, Friday rejected a bail application by the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu.
Mr. Kanu has been in detention since his arrest last October in Lagos and is currently standing trial on treason charges.
He had earlier been granted bail twice by the courts, but the government refused to release him for security reasons.
Giving grounds for turning down Kanu’s bail application, the judge held that the accused was a security threat and if released, could jump bail considering the fact that he is a dual national of Nigeria and the United Kingdom.
The IPOB founder was subsequently remanded in prison until his trial.
Earlier, Kanu asked that the lawyer who served as his lead counsel in previous sittings, M. U. Udechukwu, step down for Chucks Muoma.
In a letter he addressed to the court ahead of Friday’s hearing on his bail application, the accused asked that there should be a change in his representation because according to him, the person who represented him in previous sittings was different from the person he had instructed.
In his reaction, Mr. Udechukwu said impersonation, a serious offence, could affect his legal profession of almost 20 years and prayed the court to record his apology for the said offence, and that the court should note that he was withdrawing from the case.
Justice Tsoho, who had earlier hesitated to read the letter, regarding it as an issue that should be resolved by the counsels, asked to know the name of the particular counsel he would record for Mr. Kanu.
Mr. Muoma told the court that he and Mr. Ejiofor would take the place of the defendant’s counsel.
Mr. Udechukwu told the court that his withdrawal would affect the other counsels who came with him.
