According to Sahara Reporter, “Nnamdi Kanu, the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), has pledged to pay N1 million to any law student in Nigeria who can find and provide judicial precedent in which a Nigerian judge granted a stay of execution in a criminal proceeding where the suspect or defendant was acquitted and discharged. Kanu, who has been kept in detention by the Department of State Services (DSS) since June 2021 on an alleged terrorist allegation filed by the Nigerian government, made the pledge on Thursday through his legal team, led by Barrister Aloy Ejimakor.”
The IPOB commander made the pledge after Justice Haruna Tsamani granted the Nigerian government a stay of execution in October 2022 by Justice Haruna Tsamani of the Appeal Court on a judgment which was also delivered by Appeal Court judges which set Kanu free and acquitted him of the charges of terrorism and treasonable felony against him.
A three-man panel of Appeal Court justices ruled that the Nigerian government’s extraordinary rendition of Kanu without due process of law was a gross violation of all international conventions, treaties, protocols, and guidelines to which Nigeria is a signatory, as well as a violation of the Appellant’s fundamental human rights.
The appellate court also ruled that the government failed to counter the claim that the IPOB leader was in Kenya when he was abducted and returned to the country without any extradition procedures.
On that basis, the appellate court ruled that the government was “ominously silent on the issue,” which it defined as critical in assessing whether the trial court still had jurisdiction to continue the criminal process before it.
The appellate court justices determined that the Nigerian government’s actions tainted the entire procedure against Kanu and constituted “an abuse of criminal prosecution in general.” The three-man judge thus ruled: “The court will never shy away from calling the Executive to order when it tilts toward Executive recklessness.”
It accused the government of committing “serious abuses of power.” However, in a notice of appeal filed with the Supreme Court, the Nigerian government sought a stay of execution on the Court of Appeal’s verdict.
During a news conference in Abuja on Thursday, Kanu’s legal team stated that the IPOB leader’s continuing arrest at the DSS is unlawful and not based on a court order.
Kanu was remanded in custody on the allegation that he jumped bail. But the legal team said, “By the decision of the Court of Appeal, all the charges for which Onyendu is being tried were quashed for want of jurisdiction and in violation of the Extradition Acts of both Kenya and Nigeria.“Justice Tsamani of the Court of Appeal, Abuja Division unlawfully granted an Order staying the release of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu. “This order was illegally granted and never in the history of any country’s jurisprudence had an acquitted person been denied his release from detention by way of stay of execution.”
Confirming Kanu’s N1 million pledge, the legal team said, “Mazi Nnamdi Kanu pledges to give any law student in any Nigerian University the sum of N1,000,000 if such student finds any precedent on stay of execution in criminal proceedings where an acquitted person is by such order restrained from enjoying his freedom.
“It is an illegality that would hunt Nigeria for as long as life enures. But then, it was granted because Mazi Nnamdi Kanu is of Igbo descendants and must suffer, notwithstanding what the law says.
“On the part of the Supreme Court, Onyendu did not jump bail but ran away from the treacherous acts of Operation Python Dance to save his life and physical well-being.”
The legal team recalled that at pages 10 and 11 of the Supreme Court findings and decisions, it was held, “The respondent was on bail and therefore in the custody of the law when his home was illegally invaded by heavily armed military officers of the appellant, causing him to flee from his home and country to secure his life.
“In the face of such an attack, it was reasonable for him to flee to secure his life and physical well-being.
Kanu’s legal team further recalled that the High Court of Enugu State in Suit No. E/20/2023: Mazi Nnamdi Kanu VS. Federal Republic of Nigeria & 4 ORS in a ruling delivered on October 26, 2023 by Justice A. O Onovo declared: “…that the practical application of the Terrorism Prevention Act and the Executive or Administrative action of the respondents which directly led to the proscription of IPOB and its listing as a terrorist group, said IPOB being comprised of citizens of Nigeria of Igbo and Eastern Nigeria Ethnic groups professing the political opinion of self-determination and the consequential arrest, detention and prosecution of the Applicant as member/leader of said IPOB is illegal, unlawful, unconstitutional and amount to infringement of the Applicant’s fundamental right not to be subjected to any disabilities or restrictions on the basis of his ethnicity as enshrined and guaranteed under Section 42 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended) and his fundamental rights as enshrined under Articles 2, 3, 19 and 20 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (Enforcement and Ratification) Act”.