Nnamdi Kanu: Tell Buhari To Comply With Court Order – Ejimakor Urges International Community

Barr Aloy Ejimakor, the special counsel to Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, Monday, urged well-meaning Nigerians and the international community to persuade President Muhammadu Buhari to obey last Thursday’s Appeal Court ruling which cleared his client of charges preferred against him by the federal government.

Recall that a panel of justices of the appellate court declared that the manner Kanu was renditioned from Kenya to Nigeria violated international laws, hence voiding the charges against him.

Kanu is the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, which the federal government proscribed. The proscription is being challenged by Ejimakor at the Appeal Court.

Ejimakor, in an interview with our correspondent, said, “Nigerians of means and influence, and the international community should intervene in persuading President Buhari to promptly comply with the court order which discharged Kanu from all the criminal charges pending against him.

“Buhari had on two occasions promised to obey any court order that bears on the release of Kanu; promise of this sort is a debt.”

He cited a tweet, last year, by Mr John Campbell, the former US ambassador to Nigeria, where the diplomat stated that Nigeria cannot afford any more ‘mishandling’ of the matter of Nnamdi Kanu for the sake of safety and security of the nation.

Ejimakor, however, recalled Nigeria’s penchant for disobeying court orders. In his words, “Nigeria’s disobedience of a 2018 decision of a continental tribunal on Kanu was the first ‘mishandling’. The extraordinary rendition was the second.

“Putting Kanu on trial was the third. Disobeying the United Nations was the fourth. And the likelihood of disobeying the judgment of the Court of Appeal will be the fifth”.

THE WHISTLER reports that the attorney general of the federation and minister of justice, Mr Abubakar Malami, SAN, had said Kanu was only discharged but not acquitted by the Court of Appeal, adding that the ministry was exploring other options to prosecute him.