Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, pleaded not guilty on Wednesday to the Federal Government’s newly modified 15-count charge of treasonable felony.
Kanu, who was taken into the courtroom about 10.15 a.m., stated that he was not guilty of any of the charges leveled against him.
From the dock, he also objected that some of the counts in the modified accusation were similar.
Meanwhile, the prosecution lawyer, Shuaibu Labaran, informed the Federal High Court that he was ready to begin with the trial immediately after taking Kanu’s plea, adding that he had brought two witnesses to testify against Kanu.
However, Kanu’s lead counsel, Chief Mike Ozekhome (SAN), told the Court that he had on Tuesday evening, filed a 43-paged preliminary objection for the charge to be quashed and struck out without the matter proceeding to trial.
“We are further asking that the defendant should be discharged and acquitted as there is nothing in this charge. It has no basis at all.
“We also have a motion requesting the court to grant bail to the defendant,” he added.
Labaran, on his part, argued that Kanu’s two applications were not ripe for hearing, stressing that he would require time to go through them so as to be able to respond.
“In essence, the business of the day cannot be allowed to be truncated by these applications,” he argued.
In a brief ruling, Justice Nyako said that since Kanu’s first application was challenging the propriety of his trial as well as competence of the charge against him, the Court ought to hear it first.
“As for the second motion (on the issue of bail), I don’t even want to talk about it, at least not at this stage,” Justice Nyako held.
The Court subsequently adjourned till February 16 to hear the pending application.