Order release of detained IPOB members nationwide, Kanu’s lawyer writes Buhari

Mr. Ifeanyi Ejiofor, lawyer to the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to extend his recent gesture in Kano State to all members of the group detained across different Nigerian prisons.

This was contained in the letter the counsel to the IPOB leader, whose whereabouts remains unknown, wrote to the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami (SAN).

Ejiofor in the letter lamented that “hundreds of innocent and defenseless IPOB members who are mostly youths”, are being held in different prisons in the South East states and Kuje Prison in Abuja on “phantom, frivolous and cooked-up allegations”.

Ejiofor also reminded the AGF that one of the alleged pro-Biafra agitators, Mr. Bright Chimezie, has remained in custody of the Department of State Service (DSS) without trial, against a judgment of the Federal High Court in Uyo which ordered his release and also awarded him N5 million damages for the violation of his fundamental human rights.

Ejiofor’s letter came on the heels of President Buhari granting state pardon to over 500 prison inmates detained for various violent offences in Kano Maximum Security Prison.

Ejiofor’s letter read in part, “While commending the Commander in Chief for such a patriotic act, we respectfully wish to implore the President to extend the same gestures to hundreds of innocent and defenseless members of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), largely made up of Youths of Igbo extraction, held across the various prisons in the south East States and Kuje Prison in the Federal Capital Territory, on accounts of phantom charges, frivolous and cooked-up allegations, for merely exercising their constitutional guaranteed Rights to self determination including our Client who has been held in the custody of the SSS for over 14 months without trial.

“What is good for the goose is also good for the gander! If the President is a true Nationalist, he should do the needful in this regard, without further prompting. One sided justice will amount to injustice!”, Ejiofor stated in his letter. He said the DSS had since been served with a copy of the high court order dated May 24, 2017, which directed it to immediately release Chimezie from detention.

“On the 30th day of May 2017, a formal communication was submitted with the Director General of the State Security Services, requesting him to obey the order of Court, still the order was treated with brazen contempt and disdain, as our Client was neither released on bail, nor charged to Court.

“Following the continued detention of our Client in flagrant disobedience of the positive orders of the Court, we initiated a formal contempt proceedings against the Director of State Security Services, through the filing and service on them, the requisite statutory forms (Forms 48 and 49), Notice of consequences of disobedience to Court Order, and Notice to show cause why the Director of State Security Services will not be committed to prison for his failure to obey Court Orders.

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“Also attached for your ease of referenceare the above referred forms.

“However, in a desperate but unavailing charade to present an impression of strict compliance with the directives contained in the order made on the 24th day of May, 2017, the name of the Applicant was smuggled in as the 5th Defendant in charge No: FHC/ABJ/CR/383/2015 between FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA VS NNAMDI KANU & ORS.

“In the amended chargedated 21st day of June, 2017, and filed on the same date, our Client was charged with two offences to wit: (a) Conspiracy to commit treasonable felony and (b) Improper importation of goods.

“The Attorney General is therefore invited to take note of these salient points as a manifestation of obvious acts of malafide on the part of State Security Services, acting under the strict directive of the State; The two Count charge preferred against our Client in the amended charge, contained offences which are ordinarily bailable in law, such that may not warrant or justify the detention of a subject beyond the statutory prescribed period, before being released on bail.

“Charge No FHC/ABJ/CS/383/2015 above referred was first amended on the 7th day of November 2016, when our Client had spent well over 23 days in the custody of the State Security Services, still he was not joined as a party, if truly he had committed any offence known to law.

“The State Security Services suddenly remembered that our Client should be charged to court, only when the Court order compelling them to either release our Client on bail or charge him to Court was served on them on the 25th day of May 2017.

“Since the amendment of the charge on the 21st day of June, 2017 vide the inclusion of our Client as the 5th Defendant in the amended charge, he has not been produced before the Federal High Court seized of the matter for the purposes of taking pleas to the charge, till date.

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“On record, the charge came up on the 17th day of October, 2017, November 20th, 2017, and 5th December, 2017, but on all of the above dates, our client was not produced in Court, neither was the said amended charge ever mentioned in Court.

“When the plight of our client was formally brought to the attention of the Court, and the facts of the existing Court order of coordinate jurisdiction directing the State Security Services to release him, His Lordship (Hon. Justice Binta Nyako) declined to comment on the amended charge, as according to my noble Lord, Our Client has not been brought before her, so that she cannot assume jurisdiction over a charge that has not been read or mentioned before her.

“Implicit in the antics of the State Security Services is that they are in law, still holding our client in clear disobedience of positive orders of Court that directed them to release Our Client”.

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