By Hycienth Nwadike (Imo State Correspondent, in Owerri)
Following the discharge and acquittal of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) by the Court of Appeal in Abuja on Thursday last week, lead counsel in the defence team of Kanu in his trial case, Barrister Ifeanyi Ejiofor, has told the federal government that it has no choice than to release the IPOB leader, in line with the provisions and spirit of the court judgement.
Ejiofor who was visibly angry over what he viewed as deliberate politicization of the court directive as contained in the said judgement, spoke to newsmen at the weekend in Owerri, Imo state capital, while reacting to a statement by Mr Abubakar Malami (SAN), the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, that Nnamdi Kanu was only discharged and not acquitted by the court.
Ejiofor insisted that the federal government must obey the order of the Appellate Court on Kanu if it does not want to approach the apex court, the Supreme Court of Nigeria, on further appeal. He stated that the court judgement was “sacrosanct and must be obeyed immediately without further ado.”
The IPOB's Counsel posited that Malami's claim that Kanu was not actually acquitted by the Appeal Court on the range of charges against him was deficient in simple legal logic, insisting that both the Federal High Court and the Appeal Court had quashed those charges against the leader of the pro-Biafra movement in their separate judgments.
According to Ejiofor, in the "quick reaction of the Attorney General of the Federation, to the erudite and unassailable Judgement of the Court of Appeal just delivered yesterday (Thursday October 13, 2022) on our Appeal, he indicated that the Federal Government is considering the options it has, including proceeding only with the counts that were pending against Onyendu Mazi Nnamdi Kanu before the bloody invasion of his house on the 14th of September, 2017.
“Now, for the avoidance of doubt, the Federal Government has no OPTIONS. It has ONLY one option, namely, to appeal against the judgment of the Court of Appeal to the Supreme Court. And the exercise of this later option shall not constitute a bar to immediate compliance with the order of the Court of Appeal which directed for the immediate and unconditional release of Onyendu Mazi Nnamdi Kanu. The order made by the Learned Justices of the Court of Appeal is sacrosanct and must be obeyed immediately without further ado.
“Further, the Attorney General of the federation’s reference to the charge pending against Onyendu before he left Nigeria in 2017, and the indication that the Federal Government may continue with the charge shows his total disconnect with the law, with the greatest respect to his office.
“It is to be noted that the remaining 7 Count charge that was struck out by the Court of Appeal after it allowed the appeal on the ground that the Federal High Court has no jurisdiction to try onyendu Mazi Nnamdi Kanu is the same (with the same charge Number – to wit: FRN VS NNAMDI KANU, CHARGE NO: FHC/ABJ/CR/383/2015, that has been pending against Onyendu MAZI NNAMDI Kanu at the Federal High Court since 2015.”
“The prosecution has Amended this charge about 7 times. It is the same charge that was amended to include other counts that brought the counts to 7 and then to 15. The Federal High Court struck out 8 counts and retained 7. On appeal, the Court of Appeal struck out the whole charge and held that the lower court had no jurisdiction to try Onyendu Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.
"That being so, that charge that has been pending against MNK since 2015 and contains counts of alleged offences committed by him before he escaped from being killed in Nigeria in 2017, no longer exists. It has been struck out. There is therefore no existing charge based on which the Federal High Court can proceed and try Onyendu,” Ejiofor stated. NNL.
