The leader of a pro-Biafra group, whose arrest sparked a wave of protests by supporters in Nigeria’s southeast, pleaded not guilty yesterday in court on treason charges. 
Nnamdi Kanu last month refused to enter a plea when he was first charged with “treasonable felony”, arguing he had no confidence in the then trial judge. 
But at a hearing before a new judge in the federal high court in Abuja yesterday, he denied a six-count indictment and was remanded in custody until a bail application on January 25. 
The prosecution alleges that between 2014 and last year, Kanu and others at large in Britain called for some southern states to secede from Nigeria to form an independent Republic of Biafra. 
The call was made on Radio Biafra, of which 
Kanu is director, and was done “with (the) 
intention to levy war against Nigeria”, according to the charge sheet. 
He was also charged with managing an unlawful society, unlawful possession of firearms and concealing the import of a radio transmitter. 
Kanu, who also heads the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) group, was arrested by Nigeria’s secret police in October when he arrived in the country from London, where the radio station is based. 
He has emerged as the new face of the campaign for a separate Biafran state, nearly 50 years after a previous unilateral declaration of independence sparked a brutal civil war. 
The conflict from 1967 to 1970 left some 1mn 
people dead, many from starvation and disease, as 
Nigerian troops blockaded the fledgling Republic of Biafra. 
IPOB supporters have held a series of protests across the country in recent months to demand his release and voice their calls for a breakaway state for the southeastern Igbo people. 
On December 17, IPOB said five campaigners were killed during celebrations after the high court in Abuja ordered Kanu’s release on bail. 
The authorities in Abuja, however, have refused to release him, leading to fresh protests. 
The police in the southern state of Rivers said yesterday 10 suspected pro-Biafra protesters arrested last week had been charged with criminal conspiracy and treasonable felony. 
The defendants were detained en route to the state capital Port Harcourt “with the intent to engage in a conduct likely to undermine public peace”, said police spokesman Ahmad K Mohamed.