The Department of State Services (DSS) said it arrested the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, in a hotel in Lagos after he secretly entered the country in 2015.
The first prosecution witness in Kanu’s terrorism trial, whose identity was shielded for security reasons, testified behind a screen while being led in evidence by the prosecuting lawyer, Adegboyega Awomolo (SAN).
Identified as PWAAA, the witness, a DSS operative, said his agency, acting on intelligence, deployed an eight-man team of operatives to a hotel in Ikeja on October 15, 2015, where Kanu was arrested during a room-to-room search.
The witness said the operatives opted for a room-to-room search because Kanu’s name was not on the hotel’s record.
PWAAA said the operatives discovered he checked in with another native name.
Items recovered from him include IPOB pamphlets, IPOB complementary cards, laptops, IPADs, microphones, microphone stands, flash drives, power adaptors for mixers, various brands of phones, perfumes, ATM cards, and a wristwatch, among others.
The items, brought to court in four suites, were displayed and admitted as exhibits by Justice James Omotosho.
The witness told the court that the interrogation of Kanu was recorded and that he admitted to being the founder and leader of IPOB.
He added that the defendant admitted to establishing and operating Radio Biafra and that he did not register it with the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC).
