NIGERIAN GOVT IN FEAR OVER THE IMMINENT FREEDOM OF BIAFRA

Dressed all in white, Nnamdi Kanu took his seat in the Federal High Court in Abuja, Nigeria, on February 9. Though he had been in detention for almost four months, the 48-year-old activist initially declined requests from court officers to agree to have his handcuffs removed. In an act of defiance, he raised his cuffed hands to the television cameras. It was hard to divine his intention, but the act and his angry expression suggested that he barely recognized the authority of the court he found himself in.

 

Kanu, a dual British-Nigerian citizen, was arrested in Lagos in October by Nigerian intelligence agents during a visit from his home in London. Kanu leads the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), a separatist movement calling for the independence of the southeastern territories that made up Biafra in the late 1960s. He denies all six of the charges against him, which include treasonable felony, a charge that carries a possible life sentence.

The authorities essentially accuse Kanu of trying to overthrow the Nigerian head of state by broadcasting secessionist propaganda on Radio Biafra, the underground radio station he runs from London.

An oil-rich region about the size of the island of Ireland, the

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6