By Adadainfo
The special counsel to Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, Barr Aloy Ejimakor, Friday, compared the federal government’s agreeing to obey the Supreme Court order halting the phasing out of the old naira notes with the ruling of the Court of Appeals last October which discharged and acquitted Kanu.
Kanu is the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, and currently being detained at the custody of the Department of State Services in Abuja. He is being tried over alleged running a proscribed group, jumping bail and treason.
The appeal court ruled that the manner Kanu was renditioned from Kenya to Nigeria in 2021 was in violation of international laws, and ordered his restitution. A High Court of Abia State also ruled that Kanu did not jump bail in 2017, and awarded damages against the federal government. The UN Opinion Group also advised the Federal Government to release Kanu, noting that it is within his human rights to seek self-actualisation.
However, the country’s attorney general and minister of justice, Mr Abubakar Malami, said Kanu ‘constitutes security threat’, and refused to obey the court orders.
Ejimakor, while reacting to the agreement of the federal government to obey the Supreme Court order stopping the phasing out of old naira notes which would have taken effect on February 10, 2023, urged those asking FG to obey the old naira note order to also demand Mr Malami to obey the court order on Kanu’s release.
According to Ejimakor, “Those asking the federal government to obey the Supreme Court judgement extending the deadline on old naira notes should also ask the federal government to comply with the court/tribunal rulings that called for the release of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu. All judgements are created equal. Obeying the Supreme Court on old naira notes requires obeying the court on release of Kanu.”
Speaking on Arise TV on Thursday, Malami stated that, “There is no doubt about the fact that the ruling of the Supreme Court, regardless of the prevailing circumstances, is binding. We are wholeheartedly in agreement that naturally, we are bound by it and will comply accordingly.”
