Aloy Ejimakor, special counsel for Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the outlawed Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB), has said that releasing the IPOB leader would not be an “act of mercy” but rather an obedience to several court orders that freed him.
Ejimakor said this in a statement on Tuesday.
Background
Kanu has been detained at the facilities of the State Security Service (SSS) since he was re-arrested in Kenya and brought back to Nigeria in June 2021, after initially fleeing the country in 2017.
The Abuja Court of Appeal, on October 13, 2022, held that the IPOB leader was extraordinarily handed over to Nigeria and that the action was a flagrant violation of the country’s extradition treaty and also a violation of his fundamental human rights.
Therefore, the court struck down the terrorism charges brought against Mr. Kanu by the Nigerian government and ordered his release from SSS custody.
But the government refused to release the IPOB leader, insisting that he (Kanu) might not be available in subsequent court proceedings if released and that his release would cause insecurity in the south-east, where he comes from.
The government, through the Federal Attorney General’s Office, subsequently appealed the court ruling and subsequently obtained an order suspending the enforcement of the court ruling in the Supreme Court of Justice.
Several concerned groups and Igbo leaders, such as Governor Charles Soludo of Anambra State, his counterpart of Enugu State, Peter Mbah, and the Chairman-General of the main Igbo socio-cultural organization, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, have repeatedly called on the government to release IPOB Leader. But their requests were ignored.
lawyer speaks
But Mr. Ejimakor argued that the Nigerian government’s possible heed to calls from various quarters for Mr. Kanu’s release would not be an “act of mercy” since different courts had already ordered his release.
“The issue of releasing Nnamdi Kanu is not an act of mercy, executive clemency or even amnesty. Instead, it is an act of doing the right thing simply by complying with the subsisting municipal court order or the current international court decision that independently declared his unlawful detention,” he said.
The lawyer argued that Mr. Kanu’s continued detention after his release by various courts was not only unlawful “but, in the current circumstances, manifestly extrajudicial and unconstitutional”.
Continuing, Mr. Ejimakor said: “Even the start of his detention, after rendition, was also not legal, because rendition is a heinous state crime that destroys the legal capacity of the state (Nigeria) to detain the victim of Delivery. in addition to also complicating the procedural powers of the State against said victim.”
The special prosecutor held that frequent calls for Mr. Kanu’s release would have been unnecessary if the Nigerian government had obeyed the country’s constitution and courts that released him.
He recalled that the Umuahia Federal High Court had declared Mr. Kanu’s extraordinary rendition and consequent detention as “gross violations” of the constitution.
“Therefore, Nnamdi Kanu’s release from detention was granted from the very day this ruling was handed down, and the days continue to count to this day because the ruling exists and it was not stayed,” he said of the ruling. court that criticized the extraordinary rendition of the IPOB leader. .
Ejimakor said the Supreme Court does not have the “exclusive” power to free Kanu despite a pending court appeal filed by the IPOB leader.
“The narrative that releasing him (Kanu) is solely in the hands of the Supreme Court is fundamentally false. He is also malicious, prejudicial and deeply damaging to Nnamdi Kanu’s legal interests, especially as he offers the authorities the humiliation and easy political cover to persist in the illegal detention of Nnamdi Kanu,” he said.
IPOB ban
The Nigerian government in September 2017 outlawed IPOB and labeled the group a terrorist organization.
But Ejimakor said that in March 2018, he obtained a ruling from a “mainland” court that overturned the ban and ordered the government to drop any further police action against Kanu and IPOB members.
“Therefore, the subsequent surrender of Nnamdi Kanu, the widespread arrests, detentions, torture, disappearances and extrajudicial killings of IPOB members should not have occurred if the authorities had complied with this historic continental decision,” he said.
The lawyer recalled that the UN, in July 2022, requested unconditional release of Mr. Kanu and called for the IPOB leader to be compensated for his extraordinary dedication
He stressed that Nigeria, as a member of the UN, was bound by treaty and customary international law to comply with the directive.
“Failure to do so stigmatizes Nigeria as a nation that has no respect for the United Nations, the very institution that passed the landmark resolution that legalized self-determination and thus dealt with Nigeria’s independence,” he argued.
Mr. Ejimakor criticized the continued detention of Mr. Kanu as he is currently facing no trial or charges against him.
He described the continued detention of the IPOB leader as “imprisonment without a sentence” and added that “in simple terms, he is the victim of false imprisonment” by the Nigerian government.