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From Ogbonnaya Ndukwe, Aba
Eminent lawyers of South-East origin have called on President Muhammadu Buhari and other senior officials of his administration to initiate discussions with the detained leader of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, and elders of the South-East on ensuring peace in the region.
They noted, however, that the IPOB leader should be released first. To them, Kanu’s continued detention will not get the desired results being sought by the authorities.
The legal luminaries noted that the judiciary had on occasions, discharged and acquitted him due to the way he was brought into the country for trial.
Chief Mike Ahamba and Chief Chuks Muoma, both Senior Advocates of Nigeria and Lagos-based lawyer, Monday Ubani, all said the federal government would achieve nothing in the continued trial of Kanu.
Ahamba said the authorities might have been against Kanu’s release without commitment, due to fears that he had the ability to raise a crowd in a short while for a fight, should things go wrong.
“It is difficult for the Federal Government to give Nnamdi Kanu a blank cheque of freedom without a commitment from him, who has ability to raise a crowd at the shortest opportunity. So, they cannot gamble to just leave him. This is the reality of the moment.
“Let them look at the whole thing and see what guarantee Kanu can give them. I cannot see any other person in this country who can gather a very large crowd in a short while, right now,” Ahamba said.
He advised that while the government see the matter as a legal issue, Kanu’s group, including the people of the South-East and their sympathisers, see it as political. He therefore, called for concession on both sides to arrive at an amicable solution that will bring enduring peace.
Leader of Igbo Lawyers Association (ILA), Muoma, said the continued detention of the IPOB leader, by the federal government, despite court judgements that he be released, was a disobedience to rule of law and the order of judgement.
Muoma maintained that Kanu had done no wrong by agitating for better condition for his people and so was being punished for the wrong cause.
“I see government’s refusal in releasing Nnamdi Kanu, as recklessness. The rule of law is not being observed by the Federal Government.
“If other people are reckless, government will shout. They are now the party doing this, and it is so disrespectful in their disobedience to the order of the Court of Appeal, Abuja, which asked the government to release him immediately and pay him costs.
“I don’t like what is happening to that young man. You grab him from somewhere and then throw him into jail.”
The legal luminary said the Federal Ministry of Justice might have been occupied by men with questionable competence, who instead of giving good advice to the government on issues of law, had used their offices to become sycophants.
He posited that failure to let Kanu go portrays Nigeria as a pariah state, stressing that Nigeria as a country makes laws but has no regard for their fulfilment.
Also, former Vice President of the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA), Dr Monday Ubani, advised the Buhari-led administration to leave the lasting legacy of coming to the roundtable with Kanu, and elders of the South-East to find a peaceful solution to the matter.
Speaking on a live television programme, Ubani said it was sad and disheartening that after speaking out openly that he would allow the courts to decide the matter, the President and his administration, had reneged and refused to obey the order of the Courts, especially the Court of Appeal, Abuja.
He noted that the appellate court had quashed the case and condemned the way the government flouted known local and international laws by bundling Kanu into Nigeria from a foreign country for trial.
He said by that singular act, the judgement was against the federal government and therefore should be adhered to.
Reminded about the federal government’s appeal at the Supreme Court, and the Attorney General, Abubakar Malami’s, insistence that Kanu was only discharged and not acquitted, Ubani, said the judgement even went further than just acquitting the IPOB leader, when it said that no other court in the land can try him with regards to the particular offence for which he was brought.
He urged people to read the Appeal Court judgement on the matter, which posited that “Kanu cannot be brought before any other court in the country, so long as the process that brought him back had been rendered incompetent and invalid.”
“My advice for the Federal Government is, speak with Kanu. Speak with elders on what should be done to ensure absolute peace, that if he is released, there will be maintenance of peace in the South-East. I think that advice should go to the President, that at this point in time, he has a very good legacy to leave behind by releasing Kanu but, before then, there should be a discussion as to ensure peace in the South-East.”
