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Naked protests for ex-governor
17/12/2007 14:30 - (SA)
Kano - A court in the Nigerian city of Kaduna on Monday on denied bail to the former governor of southern Delta state James Ibori who is on trial for alleged graft amid protests from supporters outside the court, a local reporter said.
"This court cannot grant the defendant's oral application for bail considering his precedent of having jumped bail in London," presiding judge Lawal Shuaibu ruled, a local journalist at the court told AFP on the phone.
Shuaibu ordered that Ibori, accused of corruption and money laundering, be remanded in the central prison in Kaduna, in northern Nigeria, until January 11, 2008 when the court hearing will resume.
Ibori, who was arrested on Wednesday and arraigned in court in Kaduna the following day, faces a 103-count charge filed by Nigeria's anti-graft agency, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
The court's refusal to grant him bail caused a stir outside the court where several hundred Ibori supporters who had been bussed in for the occasion staged a protest.
The women supporters stripped naked while the men unzipped their trousers and exposed themselves in protest, the journalist who witnessed the event said.
The nude protesters then tried to gain entry into the court premises. They succeeded in breaking the barricade set up by the police but were held back by armed policemen.
Eight trucks of armed soldiers watched the scene from a distance but there was no incident of violence.
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