Justice Binta Nyako of a Federal High Court in Abuja on Thursday ordered the Department of State Services to allow the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu, to practice his faith, and be given comfort.
The judge gave the order following the request by Kanu’s lead lawyer Ifeanyi Ejiofor.
Justice Nyako ordered that the DSS must “allow Kanu to practice his faith, change his clothes and be given comfort.”
Kanu was, however, not in court as he was not brought by the Department of the State Services.
Earlier, the judge had warned Ejiofor, to stop writing letters to her directly in respect of the trial of his client.
The judge complained that the lawyer had written two letters to her directly contrary to the procedure of channelling such letters through the Registrar of the High Court.
Justice Nyako said she would not take kindly to “a repeat of such breach of procedure” to reach the court on such issue.
However, the lawyer did not react to the warning, sought to move two motions on notice on behalf of his client.
Kanu’s lawyer had approached the court with a motion on notice seeking abridgment of time to bring back the trial of the Igbo nationalist from January 19, 2022, to an early date either in November or December 2021.
The lawyer for the Federal Government, Shuaib Labaran, informed the Judge that he had filled a counter affidavit to oppose the request to abridge time in the trial that had been fixed for January next year.
Subsequently the case diary of the court was read to establish that the court had pending cases till January.
However, following the persistent plea, Justice Nyako agreed to shift other cases scheduled for January 18 to accommodate Kanu’s trial between January 18 and 20.
Also, Ejiofor challenged the competence of the seven counts bordering on treasonable felony brought against Kalu.
But the Federal Government lawyer argued that the motion was not ripe for hearing.
Justice Nyako rejected the bid to bring the motion forward.