Nigerian secessionist granted bail over health concerns

By Rafiu Ajakaye

LAGOS, Nigeria

A Nigerian secessionist activist Tuesday was granted bail on health grounds nearly two years after he was arrested and slammed with treason charges.

Nnamdi Kanu leads the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), which calls for the Igbo ethnic group of southeast Nigeria to break away from the country by all means necessary, an idea that triggered a 30-month civil war in 1967.

Federal High Court Justice Binta Inyako granted Kanu bail on 12 stringent conditions, including no participation in any rallies, no interviews, and no congregating with crowds.

The judge also asked him to submit his Nigerian and British passports.

Kanu “has appealed to the court for bail based on health grounds and it is only the living that can stand trial. So I am minded to grant him bail so that he can attend to his health and face his trial alive,” Nyako said.

She denied bail to the three others standing trial with the activist, citing the seriousness of the charges against them.

The judge adjourned the trial to July.

Nigerian authorities had repeatedly opposed bail for Kanu due to the seriousness of the treason charge, but the government apparently relented following pleas by leaders from Kanu's region and beyond.

Kanu faces sundry charges of inciting ethnic hatred and seeking to balkanize the country with violence. He was arrested in October 2015.