Kanu’s continuous detention impedes his right to fair trial, says defence team

The legal team of the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, has declared that his continuous detention by the State Security Service (SSS) is hampering his right to a fair trial.

The team, led by Mr Aloy Ejimakor, said while refusing their application to restore Kanu’s bail in line with the ruling of the Supreme Court, Justice Binta Murtala-Nyako of the Federal High Court, Abuja made an order modifying the conditions of counsel visitation to Kanu.

Ejimakor stated that this modified order was, according to the court, aimed at expanding the opportunity for Kanu’s lawyers to adequately prepare him for trial in a way that would ensure that he gets a fair trial.

“The court ordered that Mazi Kanu be permitted by the SSS to meet with up to five of his lawyers, consulting with him as a team, not separately as was done before; and that such consultation be done in a private room at their office,” he said.

He further stated that it was consequent upon this, that after duly notifying the SSS with the names of the four lawyers billed to meet with Kanu, they presented themselves at the SSS as a group but were refused.

He explained that the SSS insisted that the lawyers must meet with Kanu separately, adding that it is a flagrant disobedience of the court order.

“This latest development affirms the point we have been making in Court that continuing to detain Kanu at the SSS constitutes a permanent hindrance to any prospect of getting a fair trial for him.

“This is the reason we had filed applications to either restore his bail, transfer him to prison custody, or home detention, but the court refused all the applications.

“The room where the lawyers were separately taken to meet with Kanu is the office of a senior officer and hardly qualifies as a private room that is presumably free from any secret monitoring devices, which is the case with the interrogation room where Kanu previously met with his lawyers.

“The court order gave leave to the lawyers to enter with books and to take notes from briefings with Kanu, but in addition to disallowing team visitation, the SSS also disallowed our entry into the room with papers and collected our eyeglasses, such that some of us could not read the provisions of the extant laws to which Kanu pointed out to us as crucial to preparing his defence,” he explained.

Ejimakor consequently stated that based on the foregoing reasons, they have “come to the conclusion that the prosecution which is pushing for an accelerated trial is either unserious or that it wants an accelerated kangaroo trial, lacking in any scintilla of fair play.”

His words: “Like we had indicated in the recent past, no criminal trial can happen where there is an absence of equality of arms.

“In other words, the conditions of detention of the defendant must be free from any hindrances to the adequate preparation of the defendant for his defence.

“This is an irreducible minimum strictly demanded by the Nigerian Constitution before any criminal trial can ensue.”

He, therefore, reiterated their unwavering determination and professional commitment to ensure that Kanu can never be subjected to a trial that is against the tenets of the Constitution, noting that “the opposite will amount to a grave miscarriage of justice.