President Muhammadu Buhari says Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the banned Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) who is currently standing trial in Nigeria for treason, is getting “a favour”.
Buhari was speaking on Friday when he met with notable leaders from the Southeast geopolitical zone at the grey room, by the President’s office, Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Stressing his policy of non-interference with the Judiciary, the President stated that when diaspora-based Kanu jumped bail, got arrested and was brought back to the country in June, “I said the best thing was to subject him to the system. Let him make his case in court, instead of giving very negative impressions of the country from the outside. I feel it’s even a favour to give him that opportunity.”
POLITICS NIGERIA recalls that Ifeanyi Ejiofor, lawyer to Kanu, said in August that a suit has been filed before a court in Britain concerning his client. Although he did not give details of the case before the British court, Ejiofor said the suit is to ensure that Kanu’s rights are respected in line with the IPOB leader’s UK citizenship.
Earlier in the same month, Barrister Aloy Ejimakor, another lawyer on Kanu’s defence team, in an interview with Sahara Reporters said that British authorities will eventually have an upper hand over the Nigerian government in the case of his client.
The lawyer said the Nigerian government’s display of ‘stubbornness in obeying the law and following human rights procedures’ may lead to diplomatic fracture between the two countries.
He expressed this while responding to a question on whether the British High Commission is doing enough to help the secessionist leader that has been in the custody of the Department of the State Services (DSS) since June.
The legal practitioner asserted that even though the British Consulate, as well as Kanu’s legal representatives, are being ‘frustrated’ by Nigerian authorities, the IPOB leader will get a favourable judgement.
Kanu’s lawyers have always argued that their client was “abducted” in Kenya — and not arrested.
He should come out