Sharia Secret Trial: Withdraw Your Charges Against Nnamdi Kanu If Your Witnesses Can't Testify Unmasked - IPOB Tells FG

BIAFRA | April 20, 2017 | 9:46PM

IPOB members protesting

It is on public domain that the federal government of Nigeria under the former dictator, Muhamadu Buhari, has left no stone unturned in a bid to make certain that the leader of Indigenous People of Biafra, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, who is fighting for the freedom of his long-enslaved people, and was arrested en route to Biafran land from his London base at Tullip Hotel in Lagos on the 14th of October, 2015, is convicted of a crime which everyone knows he did not commit. 

In such a bid, not just to nail Nnamdi Kanu but also to quench the revolution which will lead to not only the freedom of Biafra but also Oduduwa and Arewa, the federal government has gone as far as violating both the court and the constitution of the country which Muhamadu Buhari on assumption of office on the 29th May, 2015 swore to uphold. 

What has caused these violations has not just been the dictatorial nature of the number one citizen of Nigeria but his use of the dictatorial remains in his purported democratic conversion to pursue the unity of a country badly divided. And the more such line of action is towed the more badly becomes the resultant effect on what he is pushing to patch, which signifies that he is using the wrong methodology on a widely accepted ideology. 

To show that Nnamdi Kanu and co have not committed any crime, their detention has not only attracted different personalities in the country but also international bodies and human rights activists calling for their unconditional freedom. Such people in the interests of holding fast their hard-earned integrity would not because of Biafra demand for the release of people who they know committed the crime accused them of ( that is if Nnamdi Kanu and co had committed the crimes they were accused of). Therefore, different people calling for the release of Nnamdi Kanu and co accused can not be all wrong at the same time which shows that Buhari-led government is the one violating not just the country's constitution and court but truly breaching international law on the rights to self-determination and freedom of speech.

In violating his own country's constitution, he took longer time as against the stipulated time allowed by the constitution to formally charge and arraign an arrested citizen in court. 

He refused to obey the order of the Magistrate court to grant him conditional bail even after the stringent conditions were perfected by Nnamdi Kanu. 

In countries like UK where Nnamdi Kanu is equally a citizen, charges are prepared first and arrest warrants granted by courts before arrests are made and the accused charged within the stipulated time allowed by the constitution. But in the case of Nnamdi Kanu in Nigeria, the DSS first arrested him without arrest warrant from any court, delayed his arraignment while searching for charges and court and finally landed in MAGISTRATE COURT WUSE ZONE 2, NNAMDI AZIKIWE EXPRESS WAY, BY OLUSEGUN OBASANJO WAY OFF MOBOLO STREET, MAGISTRATE COURT, WUSE ZONE 2, presided by the chief magistrate, Shuaibu Usman with concocted charges of Criminal Conspiracy, Intimidation and Belonging to Unlawful Society. 

After concocting more charges against him to include Terrorism, they (DSS -Buhari boys) realised that the Magistrate court lacked jurisdictions to entertain the amended charges hence they withdrew from it and ascended to Federal High Court where they had obtained an order to detain him for more 90 days, which order was set aside by same Justice Ademola Adeniyi. In his ruling also Justice Ademola ordered the immediate unconditional release of the Biafran leader, Nnamdi Kanu, which order has not been effected up till now by the Buhari-led federal government which some international bodies have waded in to no avail.

After hunting new charges to include Treasonable Felony, they re-arraigned him before Justice John Tsoho and now before Justice Binta Nyako who holding that the DSS could not prove that Nnamdi Kanu committed Terrorism-related crimes, squashed five out of the 11-count charges slammed against him. 

By erasing the Terrorism-related charges held against Nnamdi Kanu and co accused, which were the basis on which secret trial would have been effected according to the constitution, there's no other basis for arguments on whether the secret trial should be erased since it is presumed that Justice Binta is indeed out for Justice yet the federal government is insisting on secret trial but has put up no reasonable argument backed by the constitution.

The federal government has defied all orders by courts, appeals by individuals and calls for his unconditional release by groups, insisting that there's enough evidence available to convict Nnamdi Kanu and co accused, which evidence(s) is(are) only testifiable by masked witnesses which is obviously contrary to the provisions of the constitution. 

In other words, Buhari wants to convict Nnamdi Kanu of a crime he did not commit, which he himself (Buhari) committed in 1983 but was never tried nor convicted. 

He wants to follow unconstitutional means to achieve his aim of nailing Nnamdi Kanu but I doubt whether honourable people that still remain in the Nigerian state which I want to believe Justice Binta is among will allow him have his way.

Since the constitution only allows the protection of witnesses for Terrorism related offences, and such charges have been squashed by the court, it, therefore, means that Buhari should honourably withdraw the charges against Nnamdi Kanu following the insistence of his(Buhari's) witnesses to only appear before the court when their protection is guaranteed by the court which is not possible as far as the current Nigerian constitution is concerned.

Therefore, let the constitution be respected and followed for such is the only way to avoid pandemonium in a badly divided establishment like Nigeria. 

Let the federal government under Buhari swallow his pride and withdraw the charges and release Nnamdi Kanu and co-accused to avoid unimaginable consequences of convicting an innocent man unconstitutionally in this democratic era.

Written by Ogu Edozie Williams

For IPOB writers