The Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Justice John Tsoho has said the venue for the trial of Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB will soon change.
According to the judge, the decision to change the venue of the trial is to prevent the interruption of other pending cases in court.
He disclosed this while hosting the newly elected executives of the Abuja Chapter of the Nigerian Bar Association in his office.
The Nigerian government has slammed 15 counts bordering on terrorism and related offences on Kanu.
He has pleaded not guilty to the charges and asked the court to discharge and acquit him, saying the charges were incurably defective and not worth being defended.
In what has been observed as a trend, during Kanu’s trial, there is usually heavy security presence at the court premises which is sometimes crowded by the agitator’s supporters.
In some cases, in a bid to scare supporters, security operatives prevent lawyers who have other cases, from gaining access into the court premises.
Some days ago, Justice Binta Nyako also affirmed that trials of other cases had been aborted and made to suffer unnecessary adjournments each time Kanu’s trial took place due to heavy security presence and blockade of roads leading to the court.
Condemning the situation, Tsoho noted that the court is trying to solve the problem.
He said, “It’s not really the making of the court. It is something foisted on us, it is security arrangement that causes this problem. So, you find a situation where a trial is coming up involving an individual and a whole lot of communities leave their businesses to besiege the court.
“It is a worrisome development to all of us the courts, counsel and parties.
“It is worrisome, but you can’t prevent them. So how to manage it has been challenging to us. We are even trying to think of some solutions. If you observed, for those who were here when the matter came up, but of course, the roads were free because the matter was shifted to late afternoon.
“What will ultimately happen is that, we are exploring the possibility of shifting the venue of the trial. That will be the best way out, otherwise, if the trial continues here, it will interfere with our business. We have 11 courts here but it is only one court that is trying Kanu.
“And anytime the case comes up, the other courts cannot function. It is really not a good development. But I can assure you that we have actually gone far in finding a solution to it.”
