Group advocates global action for Kanu’s release * Says his continued trial travesty of justice

 

Group advocates global action for Kanu’s release

* Says his continued trial travesty of justice

By Steve Oko

Rights group known as Mazi Nnamdi Kanu Global Defence Consortium, has called for global solidarity and action for the immediate and unconditional release of the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPoB, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, dismissing his continued incarceration and trial as travesty of justice.

The group also urged Nigeria partners and the international community to base their aids to Nigeria on the country’s compliance with the rule of law and due process.

It further called for global solidarity for the October 20 peaceful protest being promoted by Omoleye Sowore for Kanu’s unconditional release.

The group in a statement on Monday described Kanu’s continued trial as an abuse of court processes and travesty of justice, arguing that he had already been acquitted by the October 13, 2022 Abuja Court of Appeal judgement.

“On October 13, 2022, the Court of Appeal, Abuja Division, delivered a landmark unanimous judgement in Federal Republic of Nigeria v. Nnamdi Kanu (Appeal No. CA/ABJ/CR/625C/2018), discharging and acquitting Kanu on all counts in Charge No. FHC/ABJ/CR/383/2015.

“The panel unequivocally struck out the charges, affirmed the Federal High Court’s lack of jurisdiction ab initio due to Kanu’s unlawful rendition from Kenya, and vindicated his presumption of innocence under Section 36(5) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (CFRN).

“This was no mere procedural hiccup; it was a total extinguishment of the prosecution’s claims, leaving no subsisting charge, no valid remand order, and no enforceable judicial process against Kanu anywhere in Nigeria.”

According to the statement made available to Wawa News Global, Kanu’s “ongoing persecution exemplifies a grotesque perversion of Nigeria’s judicial system— propped up by executive lawlessness”.

The group in a statement signed by its Co-Chair, Dr Idawarifa Ebirien, faulted the resurrection of his trail after a Court of Appeal had discharged him of the terrorism charge earlier preferred against him.

It also frowned at the slow pace of “his resurrected trial” and the refusal of Government to release him to attend to his failing health.

The group called on the international community, human rights bodies, and global leaders to demand Kanu’s “immediate release, an end to his sham trial, and accountability for those who have subverted justice,” arguing that silence in the face of such anarchy is bad.

According to the statement, “Kanu’s ordeal is not isolated injustice but a canary in the coal mine of Nigeria’s eroding rule of law”, arguing that ” for a non-violent activist to be renditioned and tried in courts violates international laws”.

The group demanded the enforcement of his presumption of innocence and quashing of his trial resulting into his “immediate release”.

It also urged for urgent action from “the UN, African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights; and the International Criminal Court, ICC, to investigate alleged “judicial corruption and rendition crimes vis-a-vis Kanu’s trial.”

The group also called for a probe of the security agencies for contempt and bias in court orders concerning Kanu.

Faulting Kanu’s continued trial after an earlier court discharge the group said:”For the critical eight days from October 14 to 20, 2022, the prosecution filed its notice of appeal but secured no stay of execution. The judgment thus took immediate, self-executing effect, vaporizing the case file and crystallizing Kanu’s liberty as a matter of law.

“During this vacuum:No pending proceeding existed to invoke the savings clause under Section 98(3) of the Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022 (TPPA), which had already repealed the underpinning Terrorism (Prevention) Act, 2011 (as amended in 2013) on May 12, 2022.

The 2011/2013 Act found no living application to “save,” rendering any reliance on it thereafter a statutory nullity. Kanu’s continued physical detention by the Department of State Services (DSS) transitioned from lawful custody to outright contempt, as no extant order justified it.

This interregnum was not a footnote but a death knell. As the Supreme Court admonished in FRN v. Ifegwu (2003) 15 NWLR (Pt. 842) 113, “once a criminal trial is void, nothing stands to be stayed”—a principle that exposes the prosecution’s later maneuvers as futile necromancy. The eight-day gap severed the jurisdictional chain irreparably; what followed was not revival but resurrection of a legal phantom.”

“The Supreme Court’s December 15, 2023, remit—setting aside the discharge and remanding for de novo trial on the seven counts—breathed procedural life into the husk of proceedings but wielded no power to reanimate the statutory grave of the 2011/2013 Act, repealed 19 months prior.

It further read:”The remit restored the trial’s form, not its repealed foundation; per Section 36(8) CFRN, it could not retrospectively validate a charge adrift in a statutory vacuum. What now limps before Justice James Omotosho in the Federal High Court, Abuja, is a proceeding devoid of legal sinew, animated by fiat, and ripe for quashing as the nullity it is

“Justice delayed is justice denied—but justice corrupted is justice dead. Stand with Kanu; stand against tyranny”, the statement read.

 

Steve Oko, Publisher/C.E.O, WaWa News Global. For more information on advert placement and news coverage, contact us on: 08038725600, or via email stevemanofgod2000@yahoo.com; wawanewsglobal@gmail.com Always read WaWa News Global - Your most dependable online news platform for the latest breaking news in Nigeria.

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