By Adadainfo
Alhaji Asari Dokubo’s call on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu not to release Nnamdi Kanu is ‘defamatory’, and ‘delegitimises’ the amnesty which FG granted Dokubo when he fought for the secession of the Niger-Delta Republic from Nigeria.
Kanu’s special counsel, Barr Aloy Ejimakor, said this on Monday in a press release.
Kanu is the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, a group seeking the independence of Biafra from Nigeria. He was forcefully brought from Kenya to Nigeria in 2021 in a manner that courts have ruled amounted to extra-ordinary rendition. He is being detained at the custody of the Department of State Services in Abuja, and charged with running a proscribed group, jumping bail and treason. Despite court orders and UN Opinion group’s advice for Kanu’s release, former president Muhammedu Buhari failed to release him.
Our correspondent reports that Dokubo had during a visit to Tinubu last week stated that, “His (Nnamdi Kanu’s) release would fuel impunity; during EndSars, Nnamdi Kanu was walking free. What did he do? He poured petrol on the flames of EndSars. Now, he has been caught. What of the people who have died? This is a criminal. He should face the law. Releasing Nnamdi Kanu is rewarding criminality and rewarding gruesome murder of innocent people. He should face the law for the actions and instigations he has carried out.”
Ejimakor described Dokubo’s allegations as ‘defamatory of the fine character, reputation and international standing of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu; and it is also in clear contempt of the October 2022 judgment of the Federal High Court, Umuahia, which had determined Nnamdi Kanu’s extraordinary rendition and detention to be unconstitutional and a brazen violation of his fundamental rights’.
In his words, “Dokubo should be aware that the matter of Nnamdi Kanu has triggered the international legal order, as there are two subsisting international tribunal decisions in his favor. Whilst one decision issued from the United Nations, the other issued from a continental human rights tribunal to which Nigeria is subject by treaty.
“The EndSARS protest Dokubo blamed solely on Nnamdi Kanu was an amorphous mass movement of Nigerian youths that had no identifiable leaders and its grave fallouts led to the constitution of many commissions of inquiry, none of which indicted Nnamdi Kanu, either as a participant or a leader.”
He explained to Dokubo that Kanu’s agitation for Biafra is his right, as affirmed by a Nigerian court in the case of Sunday Igboho. Quoting him, “Dokubo should be well-advised that the conduct that led to Nnamdi Kanu’s extraordinary rendition, detention and trial is called ‘self determination’ which has been held by a competent Nigerian court – in the celebrated case of Sunday Igboho – to be legal and not criminal.
“Dokubo has, himself, once agitated for self determination by demanding the creation of Niger-Delta Republic, which led to his long incarceration in the recent past. Thus, by calling on President Tinubu not to release Nnamdi Kanu, Dokubo has unwittingly delegitimized the generous amnesty granted him by the late President Yar’Adua, affirmed and honored by former Presidents Jonathan and Buhari but yet to be affirmed and honored by President Tinubu.”
He advised Dokubo to be cautious of his statements because Kanu’s matters are before courts, although ‘capable of being addressed politically by President Tinubu’.
The release added, “Dokubo should be minded that the matter of Nnamdi Kanu, even though capable of being addressed politically by President Tinubu, now lies before several courts of Nigeria, Kenya, Britain and two international tribunals, before whom several lawyers are separately leading the legal efforts to undo the crushing injustice being levied against Mazi Nnamdi Kanu and members of Indigenous People of Biafra.”
He said Kanu committed no crime, adding that, “Ending Nnamdi Kanu’s extant extrajudicial detention is capable of springing from a sound political decision of the president because Nnamdi Kanu committed no crime. Conversely, his detention can also end with a faithful implementation of any of the victories he has garnered in Nigerian courts and the international community.”
