For the second time in about three months, the federal government has barred journalists from covering the trial of Nnamdi Kanu the leader of proscribed leader of Indigenous peoples of Biafra (IPOB).
At the last adjourned date, in July 27 the matter did not go on because the defendant Kanu was not produced in court but there was altercation between the operatives of the Department of State Services, DSS, and journalists.
This morning when the matter resumed at Court 2 , before Justice Murtala Nyako journalists assigned to cover the courts got to the court as early as 6am but were prevented from gaining access to cover the matter.
According to one of the DSS operatives, they are awaiting directives from the trial judge, Justice Binta Murtala-Nyako, on how many journalists should be allowed to go in and cover the proceedings.
One of the DSS operatives who addressed few journalists at the entrance of court 2, the courtroom where the proceedings is taking place said,
”The instruction we have is that journalists should stay in their press centre from where they would be screened to go in to cover the proceedings after getting clearance from Justice Nyako, the trial judge.
While the trial was going on in the 5th floor,.few journalists were not allowed to move out of their press centre.
As at the time of filing this report, no journalist has been allowed into the courtroom.