Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, on Tuesday lost his bid to regain freedom after spending over two years in the custody of the Department of State Services, DSS. The presiding judge, Justice Binta Nyako, instead ordered an accelerated hearing of the seven-count terrorism charge preferred against Kanu.
His counsel, Aloy Ejimakor, in an exclusive interview with DAILY POST reporters: OWEN NWACHUKWU and FRANCIS UGWU, shortly after the court session, blamed President Bola Tinubu for Kanu’s continued incarceration. He bares it all on his disappointment with the court’s decision, the next plan, among other issues. Excerpts:
Please can you tell us your next action following today’s (Tuesday) court decision?
In every judicial logjam, there’s a legal window. Those legal windows were the options we were discussing this evening. We have reasons to believe that they carry some merits, talking about the two applications we are going to bring forward to be considered in the next adjourned date on the 17th of April. I don’t want to blame the court by mentioning the topic of the subject matter. No. But bear in mind that as soon as the application is brought, your judicial correspondent would probably get a copy and it would be published to become public knowledge.
Having said that, what we witnessed today surprised us that in this day and age, justice could be turned on its head for a matter as simple as being granted bail. Section 35 says that every Nigerian is entitled to bail. It is for the government to prove why the bail shouldn’t be granted. In this situation of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, there may be additional requirements to hinder the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, section 162 to show evidence of exceptional circumstances, which we did.
Number one, consisting of his ill-health, 2, the inordinate delay in trying this case and from changing the goalpost from treasonable felony. Today we longer have treasonable felony. What we have is terrorism related cases. So there have been some intolerable delays from the government side. These are the things to be considered.
Of course you know as recently as December 15 when the Supreme Court dismissed the appeal, the media, except perhaps DAILY POST, failed to capture that Nnamdi Kanu scored victory as well. That victory was in the sense that the Supreme Court condemned the revocation of his bail. It said the trial court, that is to say Binta Nyako, should have listened to his evidence that his home was attacked and that’s why he had to run away and that wasn’t jumping bail.
Also, there was a judgement of N1b awarded to him by a state court in Umuahia. So the Supreme Court said a lot of nice things about him. So, our surprise, utter surprise is that even though the certified true copies of this judgement was made available to the court directly from the Supreme Court and we also made true copies of this judgement available to the judge as part of the exhibit for our bail application, but today in court, it emerged that the justice never read the document.
So when we were telling her what the Supreme Court said about Nnamdi Kanu not jumping bail and even went as far as saying that the impartiality of the judge is suspect. I consider myself lucky today that she allowed me to read that judgement into the record. Perhaps she was doubting me. I read it in an open court and it was very embarrassing. These are things we never wanted to bring out in the open. We don’t want to polarise an environment where we have an application for bail and discretion of the judge is warranted.
So, this thing is about give and take. I think we did good justice to the judge by not whipping up these things the Supreme Court said. We made a conscious decision not to do that because at the end of the day, bail is discretionary. So we didn’t want to get into a fight with the judge unnecessarily over that when we feel we have a case with a lot of merits. We did not need a hostile environment that would poison that case or be a crack on it and cause us some disadvantage.
Strategically, these things didn’t come out to the press but they did need to come out now. Nigerians need to understand that the Federal High Court has overruled the Supreme Court of Nigeria because what was left for her was to stamp what the Supreme Court said and restore Mazi Nnamdi Kanu’s bail but she did not.
The second one was that she denied our application, raising an objection to continue with the trial in an environment where Nnamdi Kanu is likely to get a fair hearing.
There’s a section of the constitution, section 36 of the constitution generally provides that every Nigerian has a right to adequate facilities to defend himself under the criminal administration system. He also has the right to his counsel to prepare his case. It’s a fundamental right. It’s inalienable because it goes to the basic norms of administration of criminal justice which is, you must hear the other side. You cannot decide on one side only. And in some cases, lawyers and even courts call it equality of arms. You cannot tie a defendant’s hands behind his back and say you’ve rightfully convicted him. You’re just doing the wrong thing. It’s an injustice. It is sin and a horrible thing to do and the constitution says you can’t do that.
We told my lord that each time we sit with our client to prepare for his case, the DSS interferes with that. They do not give us complete privacy. They have listening devices, audio graphics, video graphics installed in the cell where we sit with our client and they listen to what we say. They seize our documents and make photocopies and they don’t allow us to take notes.
So under such an environment, we argued, the facility to defend him is not available. And sometimes, they don’t allow all lawyers that want to see him to see him. And that is a denial to access and the constitution says you can’t do that. So we told my lord, you can’t do that. You can’t go on with this trial under these circumstances. But she said she would go on with the trial. We’re saying no. We’re taking appeal and also simultaneously considering the new windows we’ve talking about.
What are these new legal windows you talk about?
The windows are still shut. I’m going to open them in a few days and DAILY POST will be among the first to know.
The IPOB leader was so confident of defeating the Federal Government when he spoke with journalists?
Why won’t he be? Their case is very weak. They went from treasonable felony to terrorism since 2015, 9 years, that’s horrible. If you have a good case you would have convicted him since then. Political persecution, that’s what it has become.
What is your stand on the decision of the court to deny Kanu’s application to transfer him to Kuje Correctional Facility?
The Court said Kuje is porous in terms of security but I rose to challenge that. I told the court that some dangerous suspects like Abba Kyari are there. What is so special about Nnamdi Kanu that he will no longer be detained in prison? What about the Boko Haram they arrested? (if they do arrest them anyway) which then I know they don’t arrest them. Rather they negotiate with them even with their AK-47 rifles. Those are the things you hear about, you begin to believe that Nigeria is two worlds apart.
We’re talking about Nnamdi Kanu, a civilian who has never been found with a gun or knife or who has never had any violence attributed to him directly. That world is called Southern Nigeria and the other world, we have assault rifle-wielding terrorists, ranking terrorists in full view on TV with military, governors and some religious leaders and they are asking for some millions and billions and do that and go back to their hideouts. The following day, they will take 300 children. That’s another world in what we call Nigeria. It’s horrible.
Do you harbour any fears concerning Nnamdi Kanu’s health condition?
Yes of course, he demonstrated today that he has boils in his two armpits. Of course you know what it is when the body is reacting to something. We don’t know what is causing that. The people who are detaining him should be able to explain what is happening. His feet are swollen. He has a heart condition, high blood pressure and auditory challenges. When they tortured him in Kenya, they inflicted him with that. I don’t know why a learned justice should keep him detained. DSS jail is nothing but a glorified police cell. He needs proper treatment and he needs to be free to consult with his lawyers in order to be effective with his defence.
What do you make of Kanu’s allegation that the DSS wants to free him at the point of his death to go and die outside their custody?
He addressed that issue in open court. He harbours some suspicion that they don’t mean well for him. The system doesn’t mean well for him. Otherwise, why is he being held there and is being given substandard interventions? We have some suspicions.
Is there any political underground work being done to seek a political solution to Nnamdi Kanu’s case?
Nnamdi Kanu’s matter is an inherited issue for President Bola Tinubu. What the heck is this? Tinubu never had any issue with Nnamdi Kanu and Nnamdi Kanu never had any issue with him. When Buhari was there you saw the extent of the political engagement even from Mbazuluike Amaechi who is late now and Ezeife. It was like going to Mecca. And Tinubu is now in office. And I have it in authority that a lot of South-East political leaders have approached him either directly or indirectly. What is his principal interest with Nnamdi Kanu? Is it because Nnamdi Kanu is Igbo? What about (Sunday) Igboho? They raided his house, they had charges on his head and he ran away to Benin Republic and is back walking free making threats and statements on how he will protect his people.
What about Asari Dokubo who is going all over the place with guns and armed men and even came to Abuja and threatened the new President? What about Sowore, they also charged him of terrorism but recently they returned his passport to him and now you have Nnamdi Kanu. So Tinubu now wants it to be Nnamdi Kanu vs Tinubu? Tinubu has not come into Nnamdi Kanu’s reckoning. Nnamdi Kanu is fighting for his people. Tinubu too fought for his people. I was back in Washington when he was a member of NADECO…they used to come to Washington. They addressed the Canadian Parliament. I know Tinubu very well. He’s a man that fought injustice and dictatorship.
And now he’s President. I don’t begrudge him. I congratulate him. But he should ask himself, ‘do I have a problem with this young man?’ Does the Yoruba have a problem with the Igbo? Yorubas weren’t coming to Igbo land to kill Igbo, we knew who was doing what made Nnamdi Kanu angry and mad. Not only him, the Igbos were upset about it. What problem do the Yoruba have with the Igbo? That Tinubu would take it so personal to keep this young man in detention and rebuff every opportunity to seek solutions. Let him check again. He is not doing it right. This thing is being pushed to the extreme.
And it would get to a point where we’ll have a tinderbox and everybody would be adversely affected. Nobody has a monopoly of anything bad in society. He is the President. He should avoid conflict. Nnamdi Kanu is a powerful individual. He has tens and thousands of followers. You cannot take it away from him. You are playing with fire here holding a man for almost three years after you renditioned him from Kenya. Injustices upon injustices, and Igbos are not happy from top to down.
Are you satisfied with the intervention of top politicians from the South-East?
Osita Izunaso sponsored a resolution in the Senate about six, seven months ago. The Deputy Speaker sponsored a resolution too in the House of Representatives.
You see, this thing the media is doing, this narrative of pushing this thing back to the South East as if it’s the South East that’s holding Nnamdi Kanu. It’s a lie. It won’t work. It’s Tinubu that is holding Nnamdi Kanu. The bulk stops at his table. It’s Tinubu and Fagbemi. Is it South-West that released Sowore? You people are pushing it to South East politicians. What do you want them to do? Maybe there’s one bad egg politician who probably thinks if Nnamdi Kanu is released he might lose an election.
