The embattled leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, has said he has been a Liverpool fan since childhood, after he was refused bail on Wednesday.
Kanu disclosed this in a Federal High Court in Abuja, when Justice Binta Nyako jokingly asked him his favourite football team.
The development occurred when Kanu’s lawyer, Chief Mike Ozekhome, 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.
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.
Kanu gently stood up in the dock and said: “My team is Liverpool even from the age of seven”.
The judge 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.
The DSS official, however, said his office had always given him access to watch.
