By Izunna Okafor, Awka
The Special Counsel to the Leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, Aloy Ejimakor has told the Director-General of the State Security Services, Yusuf Magaji Bichi to obey court order and unconditionally release his client, who has remained in detention more than 31 days after being acquitted and discharged by a Federal High Court sitting in Umuahia, Abia State.
Ejimakor made this demand in a letter, entitled ‘RE: DEMAND FOR THE IMMEDIATE UNCONDITIONAL RELEASE OF MAZI NNAMDI KANU FROM DETENTION IN VIEW OF THE JUDGMENT OF THE FEDERAL HIGH COURT IN SUIT NO: FHC/UM/CS/30/2022.’ a copy of which he made available to 247ureports on Tuesday.
According to Ejimakor in the letter dated November 28, 2022 and copied to the Attorney-General of the Federation; the continued detention of the IPOB leader is not only unconstitutional but also amounts to a flagrant disobedience to the court judgements.
The letter reads in parts, “You will recall that on 26th October 2022, the Federal High Court entered a Judgment against the continued detention of our Client at the headquarters of State Security Services in Abuja.
“For your ease of reference, the relevant portion of the Judgment, which is extant and subsisting, states as follows:
“I declare that the manner of arrest and detention of the Applicant in Kenya, his continued detention in Abuja, his subjection to physical and mental trauma by the Respondents, the inhuman and degrading treatment meted out to the Applicant amounts to a brazing violation of the Applicant’s fundamental right to dignity of his person and threat to life under Section 34 (1)(a) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended).
“On 27th October 2022 (the day after delivery of the Judgment), the undersigned Counsel and a Lawyer from the Umuahia (Abia State) office of the State Security Services were each availed with Certified True Copies of the Judgment and the Judgment Order by the Registry of the Federal High court, thus affirmatively putting your office on record Notice of the Judgment.
“That was thirty-one (31) days ago, yet your office has failed or otherwise refused to release our Client, which is a flagrant disobedience of the Judgment.”
It continued, “For (the) avoidance of doubt, Section 287(3) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended) provides that: “The decisions of the Federal High Court, a High Court and of all other courts established by this Constitution shall be enforced in any part of the Federation by all authorities and persons, and by other courts of law with subordinate jurisdiction to that of the Federal High Court, a High Court and those other courts, respectively.
“In view of the foregoing constitutional provisions, it is mandatory for your office, being the detaining authority, to enforce the said Judgment (which is a decision of a Federal High Court) by releasing our Client in compliance with the ruling that our Client’s “continued detention in Abuja” is unconstitutional.”
Announcing the content of the letter in a press release on Tuesday, Ejimakor said, “Yesterday, I served on the State Security Services (SSS) a final administrative demand to release Mazi Nnamdi Kanu forthwith, in line with the 26th October Judgment of the Federal High Court (Umuahia), which held that: ‘the continued detention of Nnamdi Kanu at the SSS in Abuja amounts to a brazen violation of his fundamental rights under the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.’”
He further said, “Failure to comply with this demand will, without further notice, trigger prompt judicial measures to enforce compliance.”
