Aloy Ejimakor has urged the Tinubu Government to transfer Kanu’s case to the East or release him.
NewsOnline Nigeria reports that the counsel to Nnamdi Kanu, Aloy Ejimakor, has said the federal government cannot detain the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) leader indefinitely.
Recall that Kanu’s case was adjourned indefinitely by Justice Binta Nyako’s Federal High Court in Abuja, on Monday.
ALSO: “Stop Begging Tinubu To Release Me, I Did Not Commit Any Crime” – Nnamdi Kanu
The adjournment came after Kanu’s lawyers argued that Nyako who had recused herself from the IPOB leader’s case ought not to preside over the case.
Ejimakor, in a statement, on Monday, argued that Justice Nyako possessed no jurisdiction to conduct the hearing.
“For avoidance of doubt, the court proceedings today concerning Mazi Nnamdi Kanu is a complete nullity because the Judge, having been recused, possessed no jurisdiction to conduct the hearing. Thus, any Order of sine die purportedly made is also a nullity,” he said.
On the way forward, the IPOB leader’s lawyer said the government should transfer Kanu’s case to a Federal High Court in the South East if no Federal High Court judge in Abuja intends to preside over his client’s case.
He further added that the government could decide to allow Kanu to go home while government prosecutors replan their case against the IPOB leader.
His words: “If no Judge (other the recused Judge) in Abuja is willing to try the case, the next lawful thing to do is to – on the authority of Section 45, Federal High Court Act & James Ibori v. FRN – transfer the case to any of the Federal High Court divisions in the Southeast.
“If there’s some sort of a ‘secret official embargo’ in having Mazi Nnamdi Kanu tried in the Southeast, you cannot keep him in an endless limbo while he’s detained as an awaiting-trial. Awaiting which trial? A trial that cannot happen in Abuja or Southeast?
“In every common law country, when a State has an insurmountable difficulty in putting a detainee on trial within a reasonable time, the next responsible and lawful option is to release such a detainee until such a time his trial can be properly conducted, subject to any statute of limitation that may be applicable.
“Under the Constitution, every criminal suspect, especially a detainee, deserves to be tried within a reasonable time, not an indefinite time, not being in detention for almost four years awaiting trial that never happens for no fault of the detainee but of the State. Additionally, the Administration of Criminal Justice Act prescribed a day-to- day trial for every criminal suspect. It becomes more urgent and compelling when such suspect is in detention, and a lengthy to boot.
“In summation, we make bold to say that the ball is firmly and exclusively in the court of the Federal Government, in the sense that since it has proved unable to bring Mazi Nnamdi Kanu to trial within a reasonable time, then the next best thing (which is also lawful and constitutional) is to end this whole saga honorably by releasing Mazi Nnamdi Kanu either through restoration of his bail or otherwise – by a discontinuance of a case that was burdened by the indices of internecine politics from its inception ten years ago in 2015.”
