*Tasks Tinubu to focus and bring Terrorism under control
“the court erred in law by refusing to acknowledge Kanu’s final written address which comprehensively tackled the anomalies in the entire trial.”
By Olawale Lamina
Erstwhile National Publicity Secretary of the defunct New People’s Democratic Party, nPDP, and Chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, Chief Eze Chukwuemeka Eze, has joined patriots and other Nigerians of goodwill across the country to condemn the judgement of the Federal High Court, Abuja, presided over by Justice James Omotosho, which saw the conviction and sentencing of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu to life imprisonment for alleged offence of terrorism.
Reacting through a statement made available to the media, Chief Eze said Justice Omotosho should have halted actions on the charges before pending the determination of an appeal bothering on jurisdiction and Kanu’s unlawful and awkward rendition to Nigeria, an act which the APC Chief described as contrary to every recognized standard of practice in such circumstance.
According to Chief Eze, “the court erred in law by refusing to acknowledge Kanu’s final written address which comprehensively tackled the anomalies in the entire trial.”
He said section 36 of the constitution which guarantees fair hearing was grossly and unapologetically violated to arrive at what he claimed as the “travesty of justice.”
He opined that, “one would have loved a situation where the court addressed it’s decision to try Kanu under a repealed law – Terrorism Prevention Act, 2013 – a law that no longer exists. This major flaw nullifies the entire trial as the law is trite that no person should be tried for an offence that is unknown to the laws of the country.”
Eze picked holed in the judgement which he described “as a corruption of law and travesty of justice,” adding that the federal government under Tinubu was determined to convict Kanu regardless of how defective the entire trial would be.
Eze compared notes and recalled that sometime in June of 2021, Justice Anthony Mrima of the Kenyan High Court held that the abduction and rendition of Kanu was a blatant violation of his fundamental rights.
He pointed out that, “The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (Opinion 25/2/22) had also noted that the deprivation of Mr. Kanu’s liberty is arbitrary suggesting that the appropriate remedy was his immediate release.”
He also claimed that two days before the conviction of Kanu in November 18, Boko Haram co-founder, Mamman Nur, who was responsible for the deaths of 2,000 defenceless, innocent citizens was sentenced to 5 years imprisonment. Radical Islamists, terrorist organizations linked to Islam herdsmen and bandits, all pursuing the jihadist agenda have continued to have fields day in their killing and kidnapping spree across the country without any reasonable efforts by the Tinubu administration to bring the menace under control.
“Despite the obvious threat on the sovereignty of Nigeria, by non-state actors, President Tinubu is more concerned about 2027, showing little or no interest in salvaging the already battered global image of Nigeria which is today ranked top in the chart of deadliest countries in our world,” the party chieftain lamented.
But, the APC Chief called for calm, expressing confidence that Nnamdi Kanu would regain his freedom in due course of time, stressing that his trial, conviction and sentence clearly violated Nigerian laws and other relevant international instruments on rights of humans.”
About The Author
