The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), yesterday, accused the Supreme Court of using the instrumentality of adjournments to subvert the cause of justice in the case of its detained leader, Nnamdi Kanu.
The group described this development as part of efforts for the Kanu’s continued detention in Department of State Services (DSS) solitary confinement in Abuja.
IPOB spokesman, Emma Powerful, in a statement, said that the group was disappointed and bewildered when it received, from Kanu’s lead counsel, Prof. Mike Ozekhome, the news of cancellation of the date earlier scheduled for hearing of Kanu’s appeal. He noted that the Supreme Court’s reason that the September 14 date earlier scheduled for hearing of the case has caught up with its yearly vacation is flimsy and an afterthought.
Describing this as the worst form of travesty of justice and height of the destruction of the rule of law, IPOB asked if it was not in an open court that the Justices of the Supreme Court that sat on the Appeal on May 11, 2023, adjourned the matter to September 14, 2023.
“It was also our understanding that the September 14, 2023 adjournment was not granted as a matter of course. This was because the date was carefully considered against the background of the Federal Government’s deliberate ploy to thwart the proceedings of that day by applying for time to file their papers even when they were clearly out of time. The Appeal was, consequently, adjourned to September 14 for definite hearing.”
IPOB argued that if the current intention of the apex court were not a rape of democracy and clear subversion of the course of justice, it would not have adjourned to September 14, 2023, without being guided by their diary, which contains the entire schedule of activities and holidays of the Supreme Court for the entire year?
IPOB, therefore, urged the Supreme Court to note that the world and, indeed, members of the public recognise that the “Stay of Execution” in a criminal trial is both criminal and unconstitutional, amounting to destruction of the tenets of the criminal law jurisprudence, because it is not supported by any judicial authority, extant laws or criminal practice direction of the Court of Appeal.
According to IPOB, the court should note that contrary to the widespread misinformation, Kanu is being detained without any pending charge against him in any court of law, pointing out that it is against the law and Constitution of Nigeria
About The Author
