Lead counsel to the detained leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, Senior Advocate of Nigeria Kanu Agabi, has formally applied to withdraw from representing him. Agabi informed the court that the defendant had taken back the case from his legal team.
All other Senior Advocates of Nigeria on Kanu’s defense team have also withdrawn from the suit, a development Kanu himself confirmed during Thursday’s court session.
Addressing the court, Kanu stated that he would be representing himself for the time being, though he may reconsider this decision later. When Justice James Omotosho, who presides over the matter at the Federal High Court in Abuja, asked whether he wished for the court to assign him a lawyer, Kanu declined the offer.
Arguing orally in his own defense, Kanu maintained that the court lacks jurisdiction to try him.
The IPOB leader appeared before the Federal High Court, Abuja, to open his defense in the terrorism charges brought against him by the Federal Government.
In his witness list, Kanu named several prominent figures, including former Attorney-General of the Federation Abubakar Malami (SAN), FCT Minister Nyesom Wike, Minister of Works Dave Umahi, Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, former Chief of Army Staff Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai (rtd), and former Minister of Defence Gen. Theophilus Danjuma (rtd), among others.
Details later…
