BY ANTHONY OCHELA, ABUJA
National Judicial Council, NJC, has refuted a report that the Chief Justice of Nigeria, CJN, Kudirat Kekere-Ekun had ordered the immediate release and repatriation of the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Nnamdi Kanu, back to Kenya.
In a statement issued Thursday, the council described the report as a figment of the imagination of the writer, emphasising that the CJN had no involvement in the Kanu case.
The statement signed by the NJC’s Deputy Director of Information, Kemi Ogedengbe, pointed out that there are no court proceedings, decision or judgment where such statements ascribed to Justice Kekere-Ekun was made.
It noted that the CJN neither presided over any case involving Kanu at the apex court, where jurisdiction issue was argued nor made such pronouncement.
It added that the CJN never wrote any formal letter to the Kenyan government or Kenya High Commission apologising for the arrest of Kanu and his trial.
Kanu, who is facing a seven-count charge of treasonable felony initiated against him by the federal government, is scheduled to appear before the Federal High Court in Abuja today.
He is expected to take a fresh plea before Justice James Omotosho, who was reassigned the case file after the previous trial judge, Justice Binta Nyako, recused herself, following Kanu’s allegation of bias.
Kanu was first arrested in Lagos on October 14, 2015 upon his return to the country from the United Kingdom, UK.
On April 25, 2017, Justice Nyako granted him bail on health grounds after he had spent about 18 months in detention.
Upon the perfection of the bail conditions, he was on April 28, 2017, released from Kuje prison.
However, shortly into the trial, the IPOB leader escaped from the country after soldiers invaded his country home at Afara Ukwu Ibeku in Umuahia, Abia State, an operation that led to the death of some of his followers.
Kanu was later re-arrested in Kenya on June 19, 2021 and extraordinarily renditioned back to the country by security agents on June 27, 2021.
Following the development, the trial court, on June 29, 2021, remanded him in the custody of the Department of State Services, DSS, where he remained till date.
The trial court had on April 8, 2022, struck out eight out of the initial 15-count charge that the federal government preferred against the defendant, saying they lacked substance.
