The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) on Friday slammed the judgement, earlier in the day, by the Supreme Court ordering the trial of the leader of the Indigenous peoples of Biafra (IPOB) Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, for alleged treason.
The rights group in a statement by the National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, described the judgement as ‘a product of Igbo phobia.’
HURIWA asked President Bola Ahmed Tinubu “to order his Federal Attorney General and Minister of Justice Alhaji Lateef Fagbemi, Senior Advocate of Nigeria, to file a nolli prosequi discontinuing any trial on the nebulous charges of terrorism or treason” against Kanu “in view of the vexatious decision of the Supreme Court.” This “shows that justices who sat on this Appeal at the Supreme Court are suffering from Igbo phobia and do not wish the Igbo region well,” HURIWA said.
“Though the apex court, in a unanimous decision by a five-member panel of Justices, acknowledged that FG acted “irresponsibly” when it forcefully brought Kanu back to the country from Kenya, against all known laws, however, it held that it was not enough to divest the trial court of its jurisdiction to continue with the case.
“It held that there is no legislation in the country that stripped the trial court of the jurisdiction to go ahead with Kanu’s case, despite the illegal action that FG took against him.
“In the judgement that was prepared by Justice Garba Mohammed but read by Justice Emmanuel Agim, the apex court held that the remedy open for Kanu was for him to institute a civil action against the government,” HURIWA noted.
It however strongly carpeted the Supreme Court and “fully backed the well-considered judgment of the Court of Appeal which quashed the trial of Nnamdi Kanu including building its sound judgment on the violation of international laws by President Muhammadu Buhari as he then was, who ordered the illegal rendition and abduction of Nnamdi Kanu from Nairobi Airport in Kenya back into Nigeria wearing handcuffs.”
“It is a shame that the highest court in the land can actually reach a determination that a citizen’s human rights was violated by the Federal Government through unlawful abduction, but the same Supreme Court is waiting for a phantom legislation to unleash its legal venom against offenders who committed the unlawful act and who are now without immunity including erstwhile President Buhari and his ethnically bigoted AGF Abubakar Malami. This is preposterous,” HURIWA said.
Questioning why the Supreme Court of Nigeria had to on the basis of whimsical excuses that the Appeal Court’s freedom granted to Nnamdi Kanu was based on sentiments and not on law therefore overruling the sound judgment of the Appeal court, the leading Civil Rights Advocacy group said the current justices at the Supreme Court “have a long history of dishing our rulings that had contributed to the instability and insecurity that has engulfed much of South East beginning from Imo State whereby the same Supreme court under a panel headed by another jurist, justice Kekere-Ekun who was the head of the panel that unlawfully promoted Hope Uzodinma of All Progressives Congress from number four in the 2019 gubernatorial poll in Imo State to number one, thus displacing the clear winner Mr. Emeka Ihedioha of the Peoples Democratic Party even when the same Supreme Court in an earlier ruling had stated that Uche Nwosu was the validly nominated gubernatorial candidate of the same All Progressives Congress.”
HURIWA recalled that it was this same Supreme Court that in 2020 upturned the election of Emeka Ihedioha as governor of Imo State. The apex court said Ihedioha of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) did not score majority of the lawful vote in the March 9 governorship election.
In his place, the apex court ordered that Hope Uzodinma candidate of the All Progressives Party (APC) who was returned as number four in the election by INEC should be immediately sworn in as the duly elected governor of the state.
In the discredited judgment delivered by Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, the apex court agreed that results in 388 polling units were unlawful excluded during the collation of the final governorship election result in Imo.
Justice Kekere-Ekun said with the addition of the result from the 388 polling units, the APC governorship candidate polled majority lawful vote and ought to have been declared winner of the election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Consequently, Justice Kekere-Ekun in the unanimous judgment voided and set aside the unlawful declaration of lhedioha as the winner of the 2019 governorship election. HURIWA said the irregular decision by this politically tainted panel of the Supreme Court headed by Kekere-Ekun, generated the tensions in Imo State that resulted in full blown insurgency, killings and instability in the South East to an extent that the US government reportedly banned the panelists that made that error-prone ruling, from visiting the USA. So, Justice Kekere-Ekun has a history of Igbo phobia.
HURIWA stated that it is not late for the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to wield his constitutional authority by directing the Federal Attorney General and Minister of Justice to discontinue the persecution of Nnamdi Kanu on same offensive and illegal charges that were quashed by the Appeal Court which the Supreme Court has overruled erroneously and out of ethnic vendetta done in their moment of political fallibility and pure hatred for Igbo states and their people.
The rights group stated that the president should order the immediate discontinuation of this state sponsored persecution of Citizen Nnamdi Kanu whose involvement in the Indigenous peoples of Biafra has not been traced to any scientifically proven or provable case of terrorism but these charges dismissed by the Court of Appeal which are now reinstated by the Supreme Court of Nigeria were actually framed up based on Conjectures, hatred for Igbo states and the systematic plot to destroy the stability, peace that hitherto existed in the Igbo states prior to the commencement of this unlawful persecution of Nnamdi Kanu. “This Supreme Court has lost a historical opportunity to end the ‘war’ in the South East of Nigeria. The final remedy is for the President to exercise his powers through his AGF to bring this injustice and continuous persecution of Nnamdi Kanu to an end.”
Specifically, HURIWA affirmed that the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in Chapter VI, Part I, Section 174. (1) provide that: (1) The Attorney-General of the Federation shall have power –
(a) To institute and undertake criminal proceedings against any person before any court of law in Nigeria, other than a court-martial, in respect of any offence created by or under any Act of the National Assembly;
(b) To take over and continue any such criminal proceedings that may have been instituted by any other authority or person; and
(c) to discontinue at any stage before judgement is delivered any such criminal proceedings instituted or undertaken by him or any other authority or person.
(2) The powers conferred upon the Attorney-General of the Federation under subsection (1) of this section may be exercised by him in person or through officers of his department.
(3) In exercising his powers under this section, the Attorney-General of the Federation shall have regard to the public interest, the interest of justice and the need to prevent abuse of legal process, even as section 211. (3) affirmed that: “In exercising his powers under this section, the attorney-General of a state shall have regard to the public interest, the interest of justice and the need to prevent abuse of legal process.”
HURIWA argued that the aggressive persecution of NNAMDI KANU and hundreds of thousands of Igbo youths associated with the self-determination campaigns of the Indigenous peoples of Biafra (IPOB) and particularly, the prolonged humiliation, dehumanisation and detention in underground secret cell of the Department of State Services of Nnamdi Kanu for over 4 years, is the genesis of the heightened state of insecurity, mass killings, insurgency and destruction of the peace of Igboland just as the Rights group said ending this state sponsored persecution of Nnamdi Kanu and the commencement of constructive dialogues with agitators, will restore peace and will serve the overall public good.
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