{"id":66223,"date":"2025-05-21T15:08:01","date_gmt":"2025-05-21T15:08:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/?p=66223"},"modified":"2025-05-21T15:08:01","modified_gmt":"2025-05-21T15:08:01","slug":"court-warns-kanus-lawyer-as-government-blocks-trial-broadcast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/2025\/05\/21\/court-warns-kanus-lawyer-as-government-blocks-trial-broadcast\/","title":{"rendered":"Court Warns Kanu\u2019s Lawyer as Government Blocks Trial Broadcast"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Adenike Lawal<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Federal Government has firmly rejected calls for live television coverage of Nnamdi Kanu\u2019s trial, even as the presiding judge rebuked one of the IPOB leader\u2019s lawyers for inappropriate social media conduct.<\/p>\n<p>During Wednesday\u2019s hearing at the Federal High Court, Abuja, Chief Adegboyega Awomolo, SAN, representing the government, argued that broadcasting the proceedings could undermine courtroom integrity.<\/p>\n<p>He also submitted a letter urging a ban on mobile phone use in court.<\/p>\n<p>Awomolo singled out Kanu\u2019s counsel, Aloy Ejimakor, accusing him of publishing misleading content online, including a video inciting Biafrans to resist what he called Kanu\u2019s persecution.<\/p>\n<p>The post drew backlash not only from the prosecution but also from Kanu\u2019s lead lawyer, Kanu Agabi, SAN, who apologized on behalf of the team and promised corrective action.<\/p>\n<p>Justice James Omotosho strongly condemned Ejimakor\u2019s behaviour, warning that legal professionals should not act like social media influencers.<\/p>\n<p>He cautioned against turning the courtroom into a publicity arena and hinted at possible sanctions for misconduct.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSome of you are more concerned with fame than justice,\u201d the judge remarked, stressing the need for a swift, fair trial.<\/p>\n<p>The hearing continued with cross-examination of a DSS operative, identified as \u201cBBB,\u201d who disclosed that the service functions independently of the Attorney General and monitors social media as part of intelligence gathering.<\/p>\n<p>The trial resumes amid rising public interest and increasing scrutiny of courtroom ethics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Adenike Lawal The Federal Government has firmly rejected calls for live television coverage of Nnamdi Kanu\u2019s trial, even as the presiding judge rebuked one of the IPOB leader\u2019s lawyers for inappropriate social media conduct. During Wednesday\u2019s hearing at the Federal High Court, Abuja, Chief Adegboyega Awomolo, SAN, representing the government, argued that broadcasting the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":66224,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1386,172],"tags":[59],"class_list":["post-66223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-judiciary","category-news","tag-featured"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66223"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66223\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":66225,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66223\/revisions\/66225"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}