Nation
Kanu: Fresh trial dims hope of political solution
After nearly four years in detention at the facility of the Department of State Services (DSS) and trial at the Federal High Court in Abuja, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) will on Friday, March 21, appear before Justice James Omotosho of the same court for a fresh trial, following the withdrawal of Justice Binta Nyako, who had been the trial judge since 2021.
Justice Nyako’s withdrawal followed a demand by Kanu in September last year that she recuses herself over alleged partiality. She eventually recused herself and sent the case file to the Chief Judge of the court, John Tsoho, for reassignment to another judge.
However, the Chief Judge later returned the case file to her and directed any party that was displeased with her handling of the case to file a formal application for her to recuse herself.
Kanu, who argues that he should not be facing trial because he was abducted from Kenya in violation of international law, subsequently petitioned the NJC. And during a court appearance on Monday, February 10, he insisted while addressing journalists that the Chief Judge had no power to compel Nyako to continue handling the case.
“This is a federal gazetted law of Nigeria that says here that the Chief Judge of Nigeria cannot tell Binta Nyako what to do. It is here, it’s your law, obey it,” Kanu had said, pointing at a pamphlet in his hand. “Binta Nyako has no jurisdiction to try me. I came out here out of respect for the law. She stands recused from my case, and cannot try my case. There are things that are happening in this country that a lot of you do not know.”
The IPOB leader went on to accuse Justice Nyako of using her position for personal gain, alleging that she was mandated to convict him to secure soft landing for her son and husband, who are facing corruption charges.
“I sent a petition to NJC, I don’t want to talk about it. Justice Binta Nyako is using her position for personal gain. Her son and her husband are facing corruption charges and they told them that if they convict me, they can release them or smoothen the pathway for the husband and the son,” the IPOB leader alleged.
“There is a breach of judicial oath. They have violated their judicial oath. They have shown bias according to the Supreme Court. Supreme Court said so, and that is why what is happening in the judgment and rulings concerning me have been happening. Disobedience to superior court order. Supreme Court said you are biased, that you are against this man; you should grant him bail, that Nigeria went to Kenya to kidnap him. These things are in the public domain. Why, therefore, are they insisting on trying me?”
The Court of Appeal in Abuja had in October 2022, dropped all charges against Kanu after ruling that he had been illegally arrested abroad. However, the Buhari government went to the Supreme Court.
The apex court later ruled that the IPOB leader will remain in custody pending the determination of his hearing. Judge Lawal Garba also ruled that his extradition was illegal but his terrorism trial at the Federal High Court should continue
Meanwhile, following Kanu’s insistence in February that she could no longer preside over his trial due to her earlier recusal, Justice Nyako adjourned the case indefinitely. The Chief Justice of Nigeria, eventually assigned the case to another judge.
In a statement on March 8, Kanu’s lawyer, Aloy Ejimakor, confirmed receiving “two separate official letters” from Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, CJN, and Tsoho, informing him of the case reassignment.
Last week, Ejimakor confirmed that the trial would commence on March 21, noting that the IPOB leader’s legal team was ready, but had yet to be served with the charges he would face before Justice Omotosho.
“It’s now official that Onyendu will appear before a new Judge on 21st March 2025, and we are primed and ready. He will appear before Justice James Omotosho of Federal High Court in court 7.
“The case will start new like it has never held before. Everything that was done from 2015 when he was arrested to the last time that he appeared before Justice Binta Nyako are gone including the appeals that are pending, they are gone out of the window.”
Prolonged trial
Kanu, 57, who was first arrested on October 14, 2015, has been in out of court and detention for nearly a decade. He was released first on April 2017 after being granted bail under stringent conditions by Justice Nyako. Following his release, his supporters trooped to is home in Afara, Ibeku, Umuahia in Abia State almost on a daily basis. Soon, a video of him parading a uniformed guard known as Biafra Security Service (BSS) began to emerge.
Muhammadu Buhari, the then president, responded with Operation Python Dance in September 2017. Soldiers invaded his home in an event that led to the killing of 28 IPOB members. Kanu disappeared from public view after his home was raided, leading to wide-ranging speculation regarding his whereabouts, with members of the IPOB accusing the Buhari government of having abducted him. But in October 2018, he reappeared in Israel and would subsequently return to his agitation fully, broadcasting on Radio Biafra and posting on social media.
On December 12, 2020, the IPOB leader announced the launch of the Eastern Security Network (ESN), a regional security force, which he said was to flush out Fulani herdsmen attacking farming villages and kidnapping residents of the South East.
He was again arrested on June 27, 2021 in Kenya and subsequently extraordinarily renditioned to Nigeria where he has been facing charges of terrorism, treasonable felony, and inciting violence through his Radio Biafra, amongst others. The federal government has amended the charges a number of times.
While International Police (Interpol) had publicly denied any involvement in Kanu’s arrest, the federal government under Buhari, had claimed it collaborated with the organisation to arrest him
The IPOB leader himself, however, claimed through his counsel, Ejimakor that the people that abducted him said that they were told by their sponsors that he was a Nigerian terrorist linked to the Islamic terrorists in Kenya, presumably Al-Shabab.
“But after several days when they discovered his true identity, they tended to treat him less badly. Despite that, they told him they felt committed to hand him over to those that hired them,” Mr Ejimakor had said.
Violence over arrest
Kanu’s arrest sparked significant unrest, especially in the South East, leading to the commencement of the Monday sit-at-home regime violently enforced by a breakaway faction of the IPOB led by Simon Ekpa, who has also been arrested by authorities in Finland where he resides as a citizen on allegations of terrorism.
While the Kanu-led IPOB through its ‘Directorate of State (DOS)’ and spokesperson, Emma Powerful, had cancelled the sit-at-home soon after it was declared, following spirited condemnation by the general populace, Sam Ekpa, whose attempt to inherit the IPOB structure in Kanu’s absence was rebuffed, seized the initiative. He apparently took control of some ESN factions through whom he violently enforced the sit-at-home home order.
The Nigerian Army, meanwhile, had in response to ESN, deployed to locate its camps, and clashes between the separatist fighters and soldiers followed.
Appeals by notable individuals, such as Prof. Ben Nwabueze, Chief Edwin Clark, Pa Ayo Adebanjo, Prof. George Obiozor, Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu – all of whom have unfortunately passed away – as well as groups like Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Afenifere and Pan-Niger Delta Forum, for President Buhari to release the IPOB leader as a way to reduce tension went unheeded, as the then president insisted on having the law take its course.
Dashed Hope
Buhari eventually left office on May 29, 2023, and while some may have hoped for a different approach by his successor, Bola Tinubu, the new president has so far opted against political resolution. And as the IPOB leader’s trial starts afresh on Friday before Justice Omotosho, the hope of an out of court resolution fades deeper into the distance with the Tinubu administration ruling out political solution without Kanu first renouncing his agitation, and the IPOB leader maintaining that he has a right to seek self determination.
Speaking to reporters in a courtroom at the Federal High Court in Abuja during his last court appearance in February, Kanu had reaffirmed his commitment to the cause, citing his legal right to seek a sovereign Biafra nation. “That is why I do what I do – I agitate for Biafra, I agitate for Biafra. It is my right to agitate,” he had said.
Known for his stiff-neckedness, the IPOB leader has remained resolute in his quest for Biafra since forming IPOB in 2012, sometimes making incendiary remarks that tend towards extremism, a dangerous scenario given that he has massive following. And particularly because the South East region of the country is still to completely recover from the devastation of the civil war of 1967 to 1970, observers say his situation is a very delicate.
“The unfortunate thing about this whole Biafra thing is that we have a lot of ignorant and angry youths who have no idea what it takes to secede from a country,” said Nnaji Ken, a youth leader and analyst in Enugu. “It was when someone I know closely suddenly became enraged and threatened to harm me when I told him that getting Biafra is largely impossible that I knew the extent of the radicalization we’re dealing with.
“They don’t know anything about global politics and how the world works. Some will tell you that the UN will intervene, and you just can’t help but shudder at their ignorance. But it’s dangerous because some of these guys now have guns and believe that somehow, by using those guns, the UN will intervene.”
No Political Solution
Meanwhile, the Tinubu administration has thus far shown that it’s in no mood for Kanu’s unconditional release.
“Everything begins with the person. If there is an acknowledgment by the person in question that he is denouncing violence and wants peace, then the government can step in,” said Daniel Bwala, a lawyer and presidential aide.
“You cannot still be holding that thought and position that is criminal, and then your uncles, your sisters and your brothers are pleading with government to bypass all the protocols and forgive. First of all, Nnamdi would have to have gone through the judicial process and be convicted before the president can exercise the power to pardon him.”
Bwala, the special adviser to President Bola Tinubu on media and policy, further argued during an interview in News Central last week that, “If he (Kanu) doesn’t admit, then he should run through the process.”
Making reference to the issue of Boko Haram terrorists being rehabilitated by the federal government as part of its de-radicalization program, Bwala contended that the said terrorists were never charged to court.
He said, “de-radicalization talked about, they were not being charged to court. It is acknowledgment. If he (Kanu) doesn’t want to acknowledge, what is the basis for saying you want to free him? Because some people said if you free him, who will handle him? Somebody has to acknowledge his wrong and say ‘I want peace with government,’ then you can have evidence to say that this person wants to lead a new life.”
Stressing that a political solution will not suffice for the IPOB leader, Bwala argued that, “the Villa is not a police station and the president is not a prosecutor. He is the president of Nigeria tasked with the responsibility of governing Nigeria. Law enforcement will carry out their work and people in government will carry out their work. I want to beg the Nigerian Media to not choose certain individuals and treat them as if they are more special than other individuals.”
Double Standards
However, while the federal government insists on following the law, Nigeria being a country where terrorists have been rehabilitated, even as agitators like Sunday Adeyemo, alias Sunday Igboho, now walks free, some have pointed out that there appears to be some bias in the treatment of Kanu.
“If you see the amount of killings that have been happening in Nigeria, remember the 70 killed in Benue State, the 100 also killed in Benue; all these states that the aborigines are being killed, what has happened? Upon all these things, the head of the Miyetti Allah has been given a pardon,” said Chukwuma Umeh, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria.
“He’s been freed, so when you’re talking about what’s happening in Benue, Plateau, Southern Kaduna, Taraba and so on, where people have had to leave their villages and live in IDP camps, what about those ones? The people that really engineered this murderous episode, have they not been freed? What about Sunday Igboho of Yoruba nation? The question cannot be taken out of context. The most important thing is, there are issues, and you cannot look at these issues without looking at the background.”
In May last year, Justice Inyang Ekwo of the Federal High Court, Abuja, had discharged the leader of Miyetti Allah Kautal Kore, Bello Bodejo, of an alleged terrorism charge filed against him by the office of the Attorney-General of the Federation.
The charge followed Badejo’s decision to set up an armed Vigilante group, amid killings by suspected herdsmen in different parts of the country.
Prior to his arrest last year, many had been calling for his arrest and the arrest of other leaders of Miyetti Allsh over the activities of herdmen across the country.
However, while the formation of the armed group led to his arrest and subsequent terrorism charges, the charges were eventually withdrawn by the federal government.
Badejo was arrested again in December 2024 in connection with the assault on a retired senior military officer, but he regained his freedom earlier in March on the order of the Federal High Court which cleared him of any wrongdoing.
But Umeh argues that the decision to release him and not Kano speaks to double standards on the part of the federal government, as according him, part of the reason for Kanu’s own action is the activities of armed herdsmen
He insists therefore that the federal government is moving in the wrong direction by insisting on Kanu’s trial.
“We’re about to start a new journey, but my question is, why running when we’re in a wrong direction? Can the Nnamdi Kanu matter only be settled in court? Is the court the only way?” he wondered.
“Yes, there are accusations, but the accusations are trying to solve the effect, without looking at the cause. It is better for us to have a broader picture of what the Nigerian problem is and start solving it from there. A situation where there’s an element of discrimination in treatment of different people, you are laying a foundation for more problems, because as long as the pain is still there, the friction will be there.”
