The Attorney General of the Federation, AGF, Abubakar Malami, has stated that Kanu, the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, may not be released despite the Appeal Court’s decision. One of Namdi Kanu’s attorneys, Barrister Aloy Ejimakor, has responded to this statement.
Recall that on Thursday, the Court of Appeal in Abuja dismissed the Federal Government’s whole terrorist case against Nnamdi Kanu and deemed the Biafra nation agitator’s kidnapping from Kenya to Nigeria unconstitutional and unlawful.
The Federal Government’s forced rendition of Kanu to Nigeria, the Court ruled, violated all national and international laws, rendering the terrorism charges against him inadmissible and illegal.
Malami has suggested, however, that Nnamdi Kanu, the head of the Indigenous People of Biafra, might not be freed in spite of the Appeal Court’s decision.
Malami stated that Kanu would face additional charges from the federal government.
However, responding to AGF Malami’s position on the Court of Appeal ruling concerning Nnamdi Kanu, Barrister Ejimakor said Malami was mistaken and that no new charges could be brought against Kanu in a statement titled “My reaction to AGF Malami’s position on the Court of Appeal ruling regarding Nnamdi Kanu.”
His statement 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 FG 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”.
