Nnamdi Kanu Pledges N1million For Any Nigerian Law Student Who Can Find Judicial Precedent On ‘Stay Of Execution’ Of Accused Already Discharged, Acquitted
Kanu, who has been held in the custody of the Department of State Services (DSS) since June 2021 over an alleged terrorism charge filed against him by the Nigerian government, made the pledge on Thursday through his legal team led by his Special Counsel, Barrister Aloy Ejimakor.
The detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, has pledged to pay the sum of N1million to any law student in Nigeria who can find and provide judicial precedent where a Nigerian judge granted stay of execution in a criminal proceedings where the suspect or defendant has been acquitted and discharged.
Kanu, who has been held in the custody of the Department of State Services (DSS) since June 2021 over an alleged terrorism charge filed against him by the Nigerian government, made the pledge on Thursday through his legal team led by his Special Counsel, Barrister Aloy Ejimakor.
The IPOB leader made the pledge following a stay of execution granted to the Nigerian government in October 2022 by Justice Haruna Tsamani of the Appeal Court on a judgment which was also delivered by Appeal Court judges which set Kanu free and acquitted him of the charges of terrorism and treasonable felony against him.
A three-man panel of justices of Appeal Court had held that extraordinary rendition of Kanu by the Nigerian government without adherence to due process of the law was a gross violation of all international conventions, treaties, protocols and guidelines that Nigeria is a signatory to, as well as a breach of the Appellant’s fundamental human rights.
The appellate court further held that the government failed to refute the allegation that the IPOB leader was in Kenya and that he was abducted and brought back to the country without any extradition processes.
On that ground, the appellate court held that the government was “ominously silent on the issue”, which it described as very pivotal in determining whether the trial court would still have the jurisdiction to continue with the criminal proceeding before it.
The appellate court judges held that the Nigerian government’s action tainted the entire proceeding it initiated against Kanu and amounted to “an abuse of criminal prosecution in general.”
The three-man judge, therefore, held thus: “The court will never shy away from calling the Executive to order when it tilts towards Executive recklessness”.
It accused the government of engaging in “serious abuse of power.”
But the Nigerian government, in a notice of appeal filed before the Supreme Court sought a stay of execution on the ruling of the Court of Appeal ruling.
During a press conference held in Abuja on Thursday, Kanu’s legal team noted that the IPOB leader’s continued detention at the DSS custody is illegal and not predicated on any court order.
Kanu was remanded in custody on the allegation that he jumped bail.
But the legal team said, “By the decision of the Court of Appeal, all the charges for which Onyendu is being tried were quashed for want of jurisdiction and in violation of the Extradition Acts of both Kenya and Nigeria.
“Justice Tsamani of the Court of Appeal, Abuja Division unlawfully granted an Order staying the release of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.
“This order was illegally granted and never in the history of any country’s jurisprudence had an acquitted person been denied his release from detention by way of stay of execution.”
Confirming Kanu’s N1 million pledge, the legal team said, “Mazi Nnamdi Kanu pledges to give any law student in any Nigerian University the sum of N1,000,000 if such student finds any precedent on stay of execution in criminal proceedings where an acquitted person is by such order restrained from enjoying his freedom.
“It is an illegality that would hunt Nigeria for as long as life enures. But then, it was granted because Mazi Nnamdi Kanu is of Igbo descendants and must suffer, notwithstanding what the law says.
“On the part of the Supreme Court, Onyendu did not jump bail but ran away from the treacherous acts of Operation Python Dance to save his life and physical well-being.”
The legal team recalled that at pages 10 and 11 of the Supreme Court findings and decisions, it was held, “The respondent was on bail and therefore in the custody of the law when his home was illegally invaded by heavily armed military officers of the appellant, causing him to flee from his home and country to secure his life.
“In the face of such an attack, it was reasonable for him to flee to secure his life and physical well-being.
“That is what any normal and reasonable human being would do in that circumstances to preserve his life and physical well-being.”
Kanu’s legal team further recalled that the High Court of Enugu State in Suit No. E/20/2023: Mazi Nnamdi Kanu VS. Federal Republic of Nigeria & 4 ORS in a ruling delivered on October 26, 2023 by Justice A. O Onovo declared: “…that the practical application of the Terrorism Prevention Act and the Executive or Administrative action of the respondents which directly led to the proscription of IPOB and its listing as a terrorist group, said IPOB being comprised of citizens of Nigeria of Igbo and Eastern Nigeria Ethnic groups professing the political opinion of self-determination and the consequential arrest, detention and prosecution of the Applicant as member/leader of said IPOB is illegal, unlawful, unconstitutional and amount to infringement of the Applicant’s fundamental right not to be subjected to any disabilities or restrictions on the basis of his ethnicity as enshrined and guaranteed under Section 42 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended) and his fundamental rights as enshrined under Articles 2, 3, 19 and 20 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (Enforcement and Ratification) Act”.
According to the IPOB leader’s lawyers, “Both the decision of the Supreme Court on the unlawfulness of the revocation of Onyendu’s bail and the Judgment of the High Court of Enugu State remain valid, subsisting and not tinkered with.
“But no person obeys them. In fact, Section 287 (1) and (3) of the Constitution that makes it compulsory for all persons and authorities to obey and give effect to the judgments of the Supreme Court and the trial Court is never entrenched in the Constitution as to benefit Onyndu Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.”
The lawyers stressed that Kanu has the constitutional right to agitate for Biafra, maintaining that self-determination is recognised and sanctioned under our laws and under normal circumstances, his persecutors are the real violators of the laws of the land.
“On what premise therefore is Mazi Nnamdi Kanu detained in the Department of State Security?
“Are Nigerian Court orders and Judgments useless or useless only as they affect Mazi Nnamdi Kanu?” the lawyers asked.
