IPOB: Kanu Decries S’Court’s Delay In Transmitting Case File To Federal High Court

The leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, has decried the failure of the Supreme Court to forward his case file to the Federal High Court.

The apex court had ruled on December 15 last year that the Federal High Court could entertain Kanu’s case despite admitting that the manner Kanu was forcefully renditioned to Nigeria from Kenya in 2021 amounted to abuse of his right and a bad image to Nigeria.

Kanu’s opposition to the continued delay in transmitting the case file was contained in a release by his special counsel, Barr Aloy Ejimakor, on Monday night. Ejimakor had visited him at the custody of the State Security Services.

Ejimakor stated that, “During my routine visitation with Mazi Nnamdi Kanu today at the DSS in Abuja, our discussion centered mainly on the persisting failure of the Supreme Court to enroll its 15th December 2023 judgment on Kanu’s case and transmission of the case file to the Federal High Court, as was ordered by the court on said 15th December.

“This delay is unusual and thus unacceptable to Mazi Kanu and he strongly condemns it. In a case where Kanu has been in detention (for two and a half years), and it is in public and judicial knowledge that he is grievously ill, one would expect that it should not take almost one month to certify the judgment and transmit the case file to the Federal High Court. And from what we are hearing, it might as well take over month.”

Ejimakor made an analogy between Kanu’s case and the speedy trials of election petition matters.

In his words, “Contrast this with election petition cases where judgments are readied and certified in as little as a day or two and made available to parties!

“In particular, given the fact that Kanu’s case cannot go forward without his case file being physically transmitted to the Federal High Court and the judgment thereof certified, any prolongation of taking these steps becomes legally injurious to Kanu, as he continues to be detained without any immediate prospects of trial and exoneration.

“We strongly urge the judicial and administrative leadership of the Supreme Court to take prompt steps to transmit Kanu’s file to the Federal High Court and make certified true copies of the judgment available to his lawyers. This is what the justice of the case demands at this point in time.”