the outlaws Biafran Indigenous People (IPOB) has accused the Nigerian government of using the Supreme Court to undermine justice for its leader, Nnamdi Kanu.
The group revealed this in a statement from its spokesperson, Emma Powerful, on Monday, which was sent to Newslodge.
Background
Kanu was first arrested in 2015 under the administration of former Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari.
The IPOB leader was later granted bail in April 2017. He fled the country after the Nigerian army invaded his home in Afara-Ukwu, near Umuahia, Abia State, in September of that year.
He was re-arrested in Kenya and brought back to Nigeria in June 2021, some four years after he fled the country.
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 the State Security Service (SSS) in Abuja.
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 to stay his execution in the Supreme Court of Justice.
Mr. Kanu, on November 3, 2022, through one of his lawyers, Mike Ozekhome, filed an appeal against the stay of the execution order with the Supreme Court.
But the court has yet to resume hearing on the appeal after repeated postponements.
IPOB kicks
In the statement, Powerful said the court’s “continuous failings” were manipulated by the Nigerian government to keep Kanu in SSS custody and undermine justice.
The spokesperson said the group received other information from Mr Ozekhome, SAN, that the court has again canceled the hearing previously scheduled for September 14 due to the annual court holiday.
He argued that the recent stay went against Supreme Court rules governing criminal trials.
“If the current intent of the supreme court is not a violation of democracy and a clear subversion of the course of justice, how could they have postponed the session until September 14, 2023 without being guided by their diary, which contains all the schedule of activities and holidays of the Supreme Court throughout the year? said Mr. Mighty.
The spokesperson argued that the suspension of the execution order in a criminal trial “is both criminal and unconstitutional.” He alleged that the Nigerian government colluded with some judicial officials in the Court of Appeal to revoke the court order that earlier released Mr. Kanu.
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“The style of the successive postponements basically at the behest of the Federal Government of Nigeria is to justify the illegal detention of our leader, which is clearly an abuse of the judicial process.
“Our leader has been detained for a year since he was released by the Court of Appeal. However, the government that appealed the decision to remove our leader is not interested in prosecuting the matter because it knows that he will still lose in the Supreme Court,” he said.
He stressed that the IPOB leader was still being held without any pending charges, which he claimed was against the Nigerian Constitution.
Mr Powerful called on governments and international institutions to immediately persuade the Nigerian government and the Supreme Court to hear and determine Kanu’s appeal.
“If the Federal Government of Nigeria is no longer interested in processing your appeal, our leader must be released immediately in accordance with the penultimate court order issued on October 13, 2022,” he said.
IPOB is a group that is leading the agitation for an independent state of Biafra, which it wants to separate from the south-east and some parts of south-south Nigeria.
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