The Federal high court in Abuja has expressed plans to shift the venue of the trial of Nnamdi Kanu, the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB.
POLITICS NIGERIA gathered that this was to ensure the non-interruption of other cases pending in court. It’s common knowledge now that security operatives bar lawyers from accessing the court anytime Kanu’s case comes up for trial.
Speaking on the matter while receiving newly elected executives of the Abuja Chapter of the Nigerian Bar Association earlier this week, the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Justice John Tsoho disclosed that an urgent solution to the issue must be found.
“It is a worrisome development to all of us the courts, counsel and parties,”
“Its not really the making of the court. It is something foisted on us, it is security arrangement that causes this problem. Of course, that has been necessitated because of the altitude of those who also want to witness the trial. So, you find a situation where a trial is coming up involving an individual and a whole lot of communities leave their businesses to besieged the court.”
“It is worrisome, but you can’t prevent them. So how to manage it has been challenging to us. We are even trying to think of some solutions. If you observed, for those who were here yesterday(Wednesday), the matter came up, but of course, the roads were free because the matter was shifted to late afternoon.”
“So the security operatives were advised not to close the access roads to the court until the time proximate to the trial. We are improving along the line. We are actually solving the problem.”
“What will ultimately happen is that, we are exploring the possibility of shifting the venue of the trial. That will be the best way out, otherwise, if the trial continues here, it will interfere with our business. We have 11 courts here but it is only one court that is trying Kanu.”
“And anytime the case comes up, the other courts cannot function. It is really not a good development. But I can assure you that we have actually gone far in finding a solution to it.”, he stated.