Justice Binta Nyako and Nnamdi Kanu.
Newsone reports that the presiding judge in the Federal Government vs Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has ordered the Department of State Services (DSS) to allow the IPOB leader to watch matches of his favourite club, Liverpool.
This online news platform understands that the Justice Binta Nyako new order came after Nnamdi Kanu informed a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital on Wednesday, that he has been a fan of Liverpool Football Club since childhood.
The IPOB leader disclosed this when Justice Binta Nyako jokingly asked him his favourite football team. Kanu, who has been in DSS custody since he was rearrested last year, said he had been a fan of Liverpool Football Club since he was seven.
The development occurred when Mike Ozekhome, Kanu’s lawyer, complained that the Department of State Services (DSS) had not been allowing him and other counsel enough time to meet with the IPOB leader whenever they visited him in detention.
The trial judge, Justice Binta Nyako, who reminded Ozekhome that he had once thanked the DSS in open court for procuring an orthopaedic mattress, pillow and others for his client, said she had already ordered that the security outfit should give Kanu moderate treatment and care while in detention like food, clothing, medicare, etc.
Then Nyako turned to Kanu and said despite her order for him to change his clothes, the IPOB leader continued to put on the same milk-colour designer wear. The judge said though Kanu, on his own accord, keeps coming into the court with the same attire, she saw him in the media with other clothes.
The judge then jokingly said she was a Liverpool fan and asked Ozekhome if he was also a fan of a football club, and the senior lawyer answered in the affirmative. He said he was also a fan of Liverpool F.C.
Justice Nyako then asked Kanu if he was a fan of Chelsea Football Club, going by the designer’s clothes he keeps wearing to court.
“What is your team?” she asked.
The IPOB leader gently stood up in the dock and said: “My team is Liverpool even from the age of seven”.
Justice Nyako then told the DSS legal director, who was in court, to always allow Kanu to watch the matches of his favourite football club.
“You must allow the defendant to watch the matches any day they are playing,” she said, adding that she was going to make an order to that effect.
Newsone Nigeria reports that the DSS official, however, said his office had always given him access to watch.