•Kanu’s Lawyer Faults Malami’s Position On Appeal Court Verdict
•Uzodimma, Ihedioha Trade Tackles Over Judgement
It is not yet uhuru for the embattled leader of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, as the National Security Council has backed the position of the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, on the Appeal Court judgment where he maintained that the IPOB point man has not been acquitted.
This was even as the Special Counsel to the detained IPOB leader, Mr. Aloy Ejimakor, has faulted the position of the Attorney General of the Federation/Minister of Justice (AGF), Abubakar Malami, on the Court of Appeal judgment, which quashed the entire terrorism charges brought against his client and ordered his release.
A three-member panel of the Court of Appeal had in a judgment last Thursday read by Justice Oludotun Adefope-Okojie, held that the Federal Government breached all local and international laws in the forceful rendition of Kanu to Nigeria in June 2021, thereby making the terrorism charges against him incompetent and unlawful.
Malami had in his reaction to the judgment said the IPOB leader was only discharged and not acquitted by the court.
Rising from their meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, yesterday, the council explained that Kanu had only been discharged, noting, however, that government would explore necessary actions available to it to press on with the matter.
Minister of Police Affairs, Mohammed Dingyadi, joined by his Interior counterpart, Rauf Aregbesola and the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), General Lucky Irabor, who briefed newsmen after the meeting, noted that the council did not discuss the issue of a possible political solution, which the Attorney General had broached in November 2021.
He said government would consider appropriate actions on the matter and notify the public on the developments.
He confirmed that the council only discussed the Appeal Court judgment but noted that solutions to these kinds of matters could be considered as long as they are not sub-judice.
He disclosed that the council also directed the Office of the National Security Adviser (NSA), in conjunction with the Office of the Secretary to Government of the Federation (OSGF), to empanel a high-powered investigation committee to unravel those behind the crude oil theft in the Niger Delta region.
But in a statement, yesterday, Ejimakor faulted Malami’s position, saying it was “flatly wrong and it is perverse to boot.”
The statement titled ‘My Reaction to AGF Malami’s Position on the Court of Appeal Judgment Regarding Nnamdi Kanu, read: “The position of AGF Malami on the Court of Appeal judgment regarding Nnamdi Kanu is flatly wrong and it is perverse to boot.
“If the Federal Government refuses or stalls on releasing Kanu solely because it desires to levy further or new charges, it will amount to a burgeoning holding charge which is impermissible in our jurisprudence.”
“Further, no new charges can stick against Kanu because, in the present circumstance, the extraordinary rendition is an abiding factor that has created a permanent barrier to his prosecution.
“Keep in mind that the extant trial of Kanu could never have proceeded had he not been illegally renditioned. So, it is not legally possible to lose jurisdiction in the extant charges and at once obtain jurisdiction in the next round of charges.
“The judgment of the Court of Appeal has therefore grandfathered a continuing lack of prosecutorial jurisdiction that will, in the interim, be very hard to overcome.
“Thus, before the levying of any new charges can have a toga of legality or chances of conferring prosecutorial jurisdiction, Kanu has to be released first. Anything to the contrary will be nugatory.”
Meanwhile, the Imo State government has dismissed reports on some media platforms that Governor Hope Uzodimma kicked against the Court of Appeal judgment, which quashed charges against Kanu.
The reports had accused the governor of blaming the Justices for delivering the judgment in favour of Kanu.
In a statement issued yesterday by the Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Declan Emelumba, the government described the report as fake news, accusing both the Imo State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and former governor Emeka Ihedioha of masterminding it.
Emelumba deplored what he called satanic and vile propaganda and falsehood being perpetrated against the governor all in the name of politics.
According to him, at no time did the Chief Press Secretary to the governor or any official of the government speak to the press concerning the Appeal Court judgment.
He also said the governor, as a law-abiding citizen of Nigeria, who believes in the rule of law, could not have queried the judgment as insinuated by the fake news.
“We are aware that Ihedioha after his ill advised attacks on Ndigbo where he called them saboteurs is desperately trying to drag His Excellency to the mud he enmeshed himself in. But this infantile stunt is a new low for him,” he alleged.
He, therefore, asked Nigerians to ignore the fake news, stressing that neither the governor nor any of his aides has reacted to the Appeal Court judgment on Kanu.
In his reaction, Ihedioha’s media aide, Chibuike Onyeukwu, dismissed the allegation, saying it was orchestrated to smear the image of the former governor by the state government.
He said: “This accusation is part of the ongoing orchestrated campaign of calumny, sponsored against my principal, by the state government.
“You will agree with me that the state government has devoted more time to churning out lies and blackmail in a futile attempt to tarnish the integrity, love and solidarity my principal enjoys across political lines in the state and beyond.
The hatred against an innocent man, who has contributed and indeed made so much sacrifice for the development of the state, can never be justified.
“His Excellency is known to everybody as a decent democrat and God fearing gentleman who would never peddle falsehood against anybody, and in this case, the state government. Therefore it is insulting to link such to him.
“However, the haste by the regime to always point accusing fingers at my principal shows how Ihediohaphobic it has become.”
