Nnamdi Kanu’s Lawyer Accuses Tinubu, Others Of Violating Nigerian Supreme Court’s Bail Order On IPOB Leader
Ejimakor said Tinubu, AGF and the Federal High Court’s failure to restore Kanu’s revoked bail as ordered by the Supreme Court in 2023 is a blatant violation of the order of the apex court, 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and international laws.
Barrister Aloy Ejimakor, Special Counsel for the detained leader of the indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, has accused President Bola Tinubu, Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice (AGF), Lateef Fagbemi (SAN) and the Federal High Court, of blatant violation of court order and constitution in Kanu’s case.
Ejimakor said Tinubu, AGF and the Federal High Court’s failure to restore Kanu’s revoked bail as ordered by the Supreme Court in 2023 is a blatant violation of the order of the apex court, 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and international laws.
Ejimakor recalled that in December 2023, the Supreme Court held that it was wrong to have revoked Kanu’s bail, meaning that his bail should, without delay, be restored by virtue of Section 287(1) of the Constitution.
Section 287(1) of the 1999 Constitution states: “The decisions of the Supreme Court shall be enforced in any part of the Federation by all authorities and persons, and by courts with subordinate jurisdiction to that of the Supreme Court.”
Ejimakor said the operative part in the constitutional provisions lies in the phrase that says, “by all authorities and persons, and by the courts”.
He said, “It follows therefore that since the Federal High Court refused to enforce the decision of the Supreme Court by its inexplicable failure to restore Mazi Nnamdi Kanu’s bail, the Federal Government which is an ‘authority’ or President Tinubu or AGF Fagbemi (who are “persons”) can step in and restore Mazi Nnamdi Kanu’s bail.
“And they are bound to do so without more because, by the clear provisions of the Constitution, they do not need any further court order.
“In other words, it does not lie with the courts alone to enforce the decisions of the Supreme Court. The President or the Attorney-General can also concurrently exercise the same power.
“To be sure, their collective refusal to act has unwittingly turned Mazi Nnamdi Kanu to a victim of false or unlawful imprisonment by the Nigerian State.
“This is where Britain comes in because Mazi Nnamdi Kanu is also its citizen and under British law and pertinent international law binding Nigeria and Britain, no British citizen should be detained illegally by any country regardless of dual nationality.”
Ejimakor questioned, “Is it lawful or constitutional for the President and the Attorney-General (who breached the Constitution by refusing to enforce the decision of the Supreme Court) to turn around and insist on subjecting Nnamdi Kanu to trial before a Federal High Court that also violated the Constitution by refusing to enforce the same decision of the Supreme Court?”
He stressed, “The answer is obvious and that is: It is a blatant violation of Section 287(1) of the Constitution. It is unlawful.
“It is perverse. It also offends the basic canons of equity and good conscience and it is immoral to boot.”
Ejimakor emphasized that equity requires all to have clean hands, stressing that the trial of Kanu no longer bears any clean hands.
According to him, this is because “the authorities (the President and the AGF) that prosecute him and the Federal High Court that designs to try him brazenly dishonored the Supreme Court and the Constitution by refusing to restore his bail”.
He questioned, “How can you subject a man to the rigors and travails of prosecution and trial under a Constitution you flagrantly violated in its black letters and spirit? Is Nigeria under a rule of law or a rule of impunity, whims and caprices? This is the crux of the matter.”
