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From Godwin Tsa, Abuja
Detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, has asked the Supreme Court to quash the ruling of the Court of Appeal granting a stay of execution on the judgment discharging him of terrorism charges by the Federal Government.
Justice Haruna Tsanami had in his ruling last Friday granted the application by the Federal Government to stay the execution of the judgment pending the hearing and determination of its appeal at the Supreme Court. The judge held that the counter affidavit filed by the legal representation of Kanu against the Federal Government’s application was misleading.
The Court had in the unanimous judgment now under appeal accused the Federal Government of flagrantly violating all known laws in the way it forcefully rendered Kanu from Kenya to Nigeria for the continuation of his trial.
However, Kanu’s lawyer, Chief Mike Ozekhome, not satisfied with the stay of execution judgment, approached the Supreme Court arguing that it is not every case where grounds of appeal raise point or points of law that stay of execution will be granted. In the appeal dated November 3, Kanu is seeking an order allowing the appeal, and setting aside in its entirety, the decision of the Court of Appeal, made on October 28, 2022, staying the execution of the judgement delivered on October 13, 2022.
In addition, Kanu wants an order of the Supreme Court restoring the efficacy of the judgement of the lower court which has not in any way been set aside by a higher court.
In ground one of his notice of appeal, Kanu posited that the court below erred in law when it proceeded to hear and determine an application for stay of execution of judgment in a criminal appeal, brought under Order 6 Rule 1 of the Court of Appeal Rules, 2021, and Section 17 of the Court of Appeal Act of 2004, and thereby occasioned a miscarriage of justice.
On grounds two, the appellant submitted that the court below erred in law when it failed to properly assess or evaluate or appraise the evidence led by, and on behalf of the Appellant, by Ifeanyi Ejiofor.
“The court below failed to properly evaluate and ascribe proper evidential or probative value to the Appellant’s Counter Affidavit filed on the 21st day of October, 2022,” Kanu stated.
The Appellant further contended that the fact that a notice of appeal has substantial and arguable grounds of appeal, is not a special circumstance to warrant the granting of a stay of execution.
“That by staying execution of a judgment that was essentially declaratory, the lower court which ought to defend the integrity of the judicial process literally overruled itself and vacated its own judgement even before the apex court has heard it,” Ozekhome submitted.
