BIAFRA: Bayelsa court frees 44 detained IPOB members

It was double joy for the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) as a Yenagoa Magistrate’s Court in Bayelsa State on Tuesday freed 44 detained members of the group.

Earlier in the day, an Abuja Federal High Court granted the group’s leader, Nnamdi Kanu bail.

The Magistrate Court in Yenagoa, presided over by Penawei Mukoro, dismissed the three count-charge of conspiracy, breach of public peace and unlawful gathering leveled against the suspects by the police.

Mokoro, in his ruing said there was a ‘no-case submission’, on the matter and subsequently discharged and acquitted the 44 accused IPOB members.

Operatives of the Joint Military Task Force, codenamed Operation Delta Safe, had arrested the Biafra agitators on October 2016 while they were meeting at a popular bar/lounge in Okaka area of Yenagoa, the state capital.

They were later handed over to police authorities in Yenagoa for investigation and prosecution.

However, Kingsley Nwosu, counsel for the IPOB members, had filed a ‘no-case submission’ before the court and labelled the arrest and trial of his clients as a deliberate attempt to intimidate and violate the fundamental rights of people to freedom of assembly.

Magistrate Mukoro, in his ruling on Tuesday struck out the case and discharged and acquitted the accused persons.

According to Mukoro, the accused IPOB members had no case to answer as the prosecution was unable to institute a prima facie case against them.

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