By Chuks Eke
A legal practitioner in Onitsha, Anambra state, Samuel Olisaemeka Chukwukelu Esq., has advised the Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja to endeavour to treat the appeal filed before it by the leader of Indigenous People of Biafra, IPoB, Nnamdi Kanu, with necessary urgency it deserves.
He said the case really deserves necessary urgency based on Kanu’s health challenges and also based on his fundamental rights which is currently at stake.
Speaking to newsmen yesterday in his law Chambers at Nkpor, near Onitsha, Chukwukelu opined that if Kanu had been arraigned before on a five-count charge of treasonable felony and attempt to divide Nigeria and was granted bail before the military invaded his house which prompted his escape and consequent rendition, the prosecution ought not to have added extra charges to the existing ones in this second trial stanza.
According to Chukwukelu
who is also a former Chairman of the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, Idemili branch, “since he had been granted bail on the five-count charge before his escape from the military invasion and on his rendition, the prosecution increased the charges to 15 counts with an additional 10 extra charges, out of which eight had been struck out, remaining seven, it behoves on the Appellate court to expedite action on the bail application in order to either uphold or reject it, based on his health challenges and fundamental rights”.
Chukwukelu, a Justice of Peace, JP, further declared: ” Justice delayed, they say, is Justice denied and that being the case, the appellate court should apply the necessary urgency it demands based on health challenges because it is somebody who is alive that that can face trial”.
“Kanu’s lead counsel, Mike Ozekhome SAN had argued that the charges before the appellate court is incompetent and cannot be sustained and I agree with him that it is a constitutional right of an applicant to get bail and continue with his case, if any”.
“His continued detention in the DSS custody is mere punishment because a person is presumed innocent until proved otherwise. He can’t be in detention forever particularly with these frivolous, bad and incompetent case that lacked merit, as submitted by Ozekhome”.
“Therefore, the court should strike out the charge and save its precious time. The court should hasten up so that if Kanu loses the bail application, he can go to the Supreme Court until he is satisfied that he has been heard”.
On the consequences of Kanu dying inside the DSS custody, Chukwukelu said: “anybody can die at any time but that depends on the circumstances of such death. We have natural death and we have unnatural one but the issue here is that he is in the DSS custody and if he dies there, definitely, it will not augur well and therefore court should treat it as a special case”.
