Ejimakor wrote: “The position of AGF Malami on the Court of Appeal judgment regarding Nnamdi Kanu is flatly wrong and it is perverse to boot.”
By Emma Ogbuehi
As reactions continue to pour in over the judgement of the Court of Appeal on Thursday discharging and acquitting the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, his Special Council, Barrister Aloy Ejimakor, has faulted the position of the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami.
In what has been dubbed a historic judgement, the Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory, on Thursday, upheld the appeal of Nnamdi Kanu.
The Appeal Court declared as unlawful his abduction in Kenya.
A three-member panel of the appellate court also quashed the terrorism charge brought against him by the Federal Government.
The Court was of the view that the Federal Government breached all local and international laws in the forceful rendition of Kanu to Nigeria thereby making the terrorism charge against him incompetent and unlawful.
The Court, therefore, discharged and acquitted the embattled leader of the proscribed group.
But reacting to the ruling, Malami, on Thursday, said the Federal Government will consider continuing with the trial of Nnamdi Kanu prior to his rendition from Kenya.
Malami, who stated this in a press statement by his Special Assistant on Media and Public Relations, Umar Gwandu, noted that the Court of Appeal only ruled on rendition matters.
Malami said: “For the avoidance of doubt and by the verdict of the Court, Kanu was only discharged and not acquitted.
“Consequently, the appropriate legal options before the authorities will be exploited and communicated accordingly to the public.
“The decision handed down by the Court of Appeal was on a single issues that borders on rendition.
“Let it be made clear to the general public that other issues that predates rendition on the basis of which Kanu jumped bail remain valid issues for judicial determination.”
The Federal Government, he said, will consider all available options open to us on the judgment on rendition while pursuing determination of pre-rendition issues.
Reacting to Malami’s position on the Court of Appeal judgment regarding Nnamdi Kanu, on Friday, Ejimakor said the position of Malami was not only flatly wrong but also perverse.
Faulting the AGF in a statement titled, “My reaction to AGF Malami’s position on the Court of Appeal judgment regarding Nnamdi Kanu,” Ejimakor wrote: “The position of AGF Malami on the Court of Appeal judgment regarding Nnamdi Kanu is flatly wrong and it is perverse to boot.”
Marshalling his points, Ejimakor who is Special Counsel to Kanu, said: “If the FG refuses or stalls on releasing Kanu solely because it desires to levy further or new charges, it will amount to a burgeoning holding charge which is impermissible in our jurisprudence.
“Further, no new charges can stick against Kanu because, in the present circumstance, the extraordinary rendition is an abiding factor that has created a permanent barrier to his prosecution.
“Keep in mind that the extant trial of Kanu could never have proceeded had he not been illegally renditioned. So, it is not legally possible to lose jurisdiction in the extant charges and at once obtain jurisdiction in the next round of charges.
“The judgment of the Court of Appeal has therefore grandfathered a continuing lack of prosecutorial jurisdiction that will, in the interim, be very hard to overcome.
“Thus, before the levying of any new charges can have a toga of legality or chances of conferring prosecutorial jurisdiction, Kanu has to be released first. Anything to the contrary will be nugatory,” Ejimakor concluded.
