The leader of the outlawed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) Nnamdi Kanu has declared that he would prefer to be in prison than to stand trial again before Justice Binta Nyako of the Federal High Court, Abuja.
Penpushing reports that Kanu who is facing terrorism charges made the declaration in an open letter to Nigerians which was uploaded by his special counsel, Aloy Ejimakor, on his X handle, arguing that he took the stand because the judge has recused herself from the case.
“If it will take the rest of my life in detention to produce me before a proper and impartial court, so be it. But let me say this for the world to know: I will not succumb to any trial conducted by any judge or court whose jurisdiction does not pass constitutional muster. Not now, not ever’, Kanu emphasized
Penpushing further reports that Kanu pointed out that he successfully requested Nyako’s recusal from the case in September because the judge allegedly showed bias by ordering his detention at the facility of the State Security Service (SSS) without a fair hearing.
The Biafra agitator claimed the judge refused to transfer him to a correctional prison facility to better prepare for his trial and subsequently declined to obey a Supreme Court ruling which ordered his bail be restored.
Penpushing also reports that he stated that the judge ordered an accelerated trial in the face of the reality that he will never get a fair trial whilst detained at the State Security Service (SSS) facility).
‘These are the major reasons that compelled me to request recusal of the judge and having consented to it, she proceeded to make an order removing herself from my case. That order was never challenged on appeal; thus, it remains extant to this day’, he said.
Penpushing reports that he equally criticised the Federal High Court Chief Judge for reassigning the case to Nyako despite her recusal, alleging that the chief judge may have connived with Nigerian authorities to convict him.
The leader of the outlawed organisation stressed that the reassignment of the case to Nyako was not due to a lack of decent judges in Nigeria that can be trusted to deliver even-handed justice.
‘That is not the issue. Instead, the issue is that my case is deliberately being shielded from judges and justices that are deemed to be committed to doing justice even when it means that the federal government must lose’, he alleged.
The accused in the open letter, recalled how he was repatriated him from Kenya to Nigeria in 2021, arguing that the court had declared that the action was in violation of his fundamental human rights and local and international laws.
Penpushing further reports that Kanu pointed out that the court similarly held that by his forcible abduction and extraordinary rendition, Nigerian courts are divested of jurisdiction to entertain charges against him.
‘In a responsible and well-ordered society, run by a responsible government, this judgment is sufficient to have ended my lengthy detention and encourage the federal government to constructively engage me on the issue of the self-determination agitation that triggered this whole saga’, he said.
Penpushing also reports that he expressed sadness that on October 13, 2022, he was discharged and acquitted by a Court of Appeal in Abuja, but the Nigerian government went on to appeal against the ruling without first obeying it by releasing him.
“Despite the clarity of this judgment and its comportment with reason, the federal government refused to release me from detention while it went behind closed doors and connived with three other justices of the Court of Appeal who fraudulently and swiftly sat on appeal over the judgment and practically destroyed it by issuing what they termed ‘a stay of execution. In a plethora of cases, the Supreme Court has held that anybody who disobeys a related court order cannot be given any judicial relief until such order is obeyed’, he stated
Penpushing reports that the leader of the outlawed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has been in detention since he was repatriated to Nigeria from Kenya in June 2021 under controversial circumstances, and has equally been facing trial.
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