The Federal Government, on Wednesday, played some of the Biafra Radio broadcast and videos made by Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), in open court to establish the allegation of terrorism preferred against him.
The broadcast and video documents, which were marked as exhibits, were tendered through the 2nd prosecution witness (PW-2), identified as BBB, before Justice James Omotosho of the Federal High Court in Abuja.
BBB, who testified behind screen provided by the court, said Kanu admitted making the broadcast and the videos while being led in evidence by FG’s lawyer, Chief Adegboyega Awomolo, SAN.
One of the radio broadcast made by Kanu on Biafra Radio on Oct. 20, 2020 during #ENDSARS Protest was played in the open court.
In the live broadcast, Kanu was heard calling on the youth to attack the police officers and soldiers anywhere they were found.
The IPOB leader, in the broadcast, called on the protesters to ambush the security personnel, snatched their guns and killed them.
Kanu, while anchoring a phone-in programme on Biafra Radio, directed the callers to kill President Bola Tinubu (who as at the time was not Nigerian president) and to burn down his hotel in Lagos.
He called on the protesters to burn down all structures and vehicles belonging to the Federal Government, including the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, the NITEL House in Marina and all police stations.
He also ordered the callers to killed Mr Nyesom Wike, who was then the governor of Rivers, anywhere he was found for alleged betrayal of the course of the people of South South and South East.
In one of the broadcast, Kanu placed a N100 million bounty for the head of Wike, the present Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
He said they should go after Wike and kill him for allegedly offering a N50 million bounty for the head of a Biafran.
In the broadcast, Kanu said Wike did not deserve to live and that he deserved to die, threatening that such treatment would be visited on any governor that presided over the killings of his people.
The IPOB leader urged the callers to cause mayhem in Lagos so that the whole world would know “these are Generation 2020.”
In the course of the broadcast, one of his followers called in from the East and demanded to be assisted with guns.
In response, Kanu encouraged the caller to enlist in what he called the volunteer force where he could assist his people from the alleged killings by the “Fulani terrorists” who he said were killing their people in the farms and raping their women.
Kanu, who said he resisted being bribed to stop the struggle for the freedom of his people, said he neither had a house of his own nor a car.
According to him, I was burn to ensure that Biafra is free in our time, including the middle belt.
In the third broadcast, Kanu announced that he was placing N100 million bounty on Wike’s head and encouraged his followers to “take Wike down.”
“N100 million for anyone who can take Wike down; dead or alive. Wike is N100 million. I will pay cash. Take down Wike, I will pay you cash.
“The bounty on Wike’s head is N100 million. Get me his head, you will get N100 million. Wike offered N50 million for the head of a Biafran,” he said in the broadcast.
In the fourth broadcast which he made on May 30, 2021, Kanu declared a “total lockdown” in the South East from May 31, 2021.
He directed that all businesses and places of worship should be shut in memory of those he said died in the struggle for Biafra.
“Do not come outside tomorrow (May 31, 2021). If you value your life. I don’t care whoever you are, you must stay at home or you will regret it.
“No vehicles should be allowed to move,” he said.
In the fifth broadcast, he among others, directed his followers to kill soldiers, adding that there were guns in Edo and that such guns should be used to kill the soldiers they come across.
In the sixth recording, Kanu was shown addressing a gathering in the United State during which he solicited for guns and ammunition.
When Awomolo asked the witness what Kanu was saying in the video, BBB said the defendant was soliciting for guns to fight the Nigerian state, but that the people he was addressing were cautioning him.
In another video played in the court, Kanu was making what he called a “Special Broadcast.”
He said: “The lovers of Biafra, the lovers of freedom all over the world wherever you are hearing me, I welcome each and everyone of you to this special address.
“This is 12th day of December, 2020. The time now is 7pm in the present land of Biafra.
“We must do all we can to save ourselves from extinction. We are not going to surrender our land not today, not tomorrow.”
After he prayed in Ibo Language, Kanu said: “As I said, we are going to announce our preparedness to defend the land of Biafra.
“Having waited for many years for the governors in South East and South South to do what their counterparts did in Yorubaland and the Miyetti Allah in the north.”
He said they were ready to defend their states against “state’s sponsored extra-judicial killings…and we are sending a note of warning to all who are shedding the Biafrans’ blood… .any act by the police to kill our people will be resisted.
According to him, for years, our brothers and sisters are unable to go to farms.
He said their mothers and daughters were allegedly being raped by the invaders called “Fulani terrorists.”
The defendant, who referred to their governors as coward, said : “This very IPOB will not tolerate this.
“The invaders, we are being told, they are from Chad, Mali, Niger Republic as being told by Governor El-Rufai.”
Kanu said the Eastern Security Network (ESN) formed would be sent to the farms and bushes to combat these invaders like the Amotekun security outfit in the west and Miyetti Allah vigilante group in the north.
“We are there to defend the land of Biafra against these marauders from Sahel
“What we plan to do is not different from what Amotekun seeks to achieve in the West and Miyetti Allah are doing in the north
“I urge you to give them maximum cooperation,” he said.
According to him, our forests and bushes will be freed from Fulani killers.
“They have managed to divide us, fragment our people. No governor in the South East or South South is ready to defend our people
“They will have us to contend with regardless of whoever that is supporting them whether in the army
“I don’t want to hear that any son or daughter of Biafra has been adopted by this Fulani terrorists.
“Our leaders have compromised and that is why they are unable to come together to do it,” he added.
He said the ESN was not Biafra army.
According to him, it is the same as Amotekun and Fulani vigilante group.
“When the time comes for the army of Biafra, we will let you know
“Self defence is a constitutional right, self determination is a right under the constitution of Nigeria and International law.
“Therefore I made no apology in the pursuit of Biafra.
“In 1966, Biafrans were killed in the north over 300, 000. Right now, if you kill us, we will kill you back.
“If you come to our villages to rape our mothers or sisters, you will die in the process
“We have resolved to die for what we believe in. We are saying that enough is enough,” Kanu said in the video.
In another recording, Kanu urged other tribes in the country to learn from the experience of the Hausas, who he claimed had been totally subjugated by the Fulanis and advised that Fulanis’ invasion should be resisted.
Earlier, the witness told the court that Kanu admitted making the broadcast and the videos while his statement was being taken on July 17, 2021.
BBB said he took statement from Kanu and that in the course of the exercise, he played the recordings of the defendant’s past broadcast, which he made via his Radio Biafra, inciting his followers to engage in violence and killings
Shortly after the witness identified copies of Kanu’s recorded broadcast, which were saved in two flash drives, the court admitted them in evidence, following which they were played in court.
The court also admitted a letter of complaint, dated June 10, 2021 by the then Attorney General of the Federation, AGF, Abubakar Malami, to the Director General of the DSS, demanding an investigation to the alleged terrorism activities of Kanu and his followers.
In the letter read in court by the witness, the AGF accused Kanu of encouraging the commission of series of crimes including killings, and destruction of public property
The letter cited some broadcast by Kanu where he instructed members of his IPOB and the Eastern Security Network (ESN) to attack and kill security personnel and prominent individuals.
In the letter, Malami claimed among others, that Kanu’s broadcast incited his followers to kill the late chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Ahmed Gulak, among others, and the burning of the house belonging to the Imo Governor, Hope Uzodinma.
After the broadcast and videos were played, Awomolo applied to tender a copy of the recording of Kanu’s statement-writing session, which he did and was admitted in evidence.
Awomolo then applied for an adjournment to play the video said to be for about one and half hours.
Emeka Etiaba, SAN, who spoke for Kanu, did not object and Justice Omotosho adjourned until May 8 for the continuation of trial.
NAN
