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From Okey Sampson, Umuahia
American Veterans of Igbo Descent (AVID) has described the current trial of the leader of the Indigenous People of Nigeria (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, as constitutional abomination.
In a statement by its president, Dr. Sylvester Onyia, AVID said what Kanu is facing is not a trial but a constitutional abomination dressed in judicial robes.
“Section 36(12) of the 1999 Constitution is not a suggestion. A repealed law is not ‘in force.’ A count declared ‘non-existent’ by the Supreme Court is not a charge. A man detained for years on such a charge is a hostage, not an accused person,” it stated.
The group regretted that on November 20, Justice James Omotosho will be delivering judgment against Kanu in a criminal case that has been legally dead for years.
“Count seven before him is the identical twin of the old Count 15 that the Supreme Court of Nigeria, on December 15, 2023, examined and declared: ‘The offence as laid does not exist in the body of our laws; Count 15 is incompetent and is hereby struck out.’ The prosecution never amended it.
“They never re-framed it under the correct law (CEMA) as the Supreme Court expressly directed.
“Justice Omotosho never ordered them to obey the apex court.
“Instead, they simply renumbered the corpse, and on March 29, 2025, forced Mazi Nnamdi Kanu to take a fresh plea to a count that the highest court in the land had already buried.
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“The other six counts are laid under the Terrorism (Prevention) Act 2011 as amended in 2013, a statute that the National Assembly repealed and replaced on May 12, 2022, three years before the fresh arraignment.
“No court in Nigeria in 2025 has jurisdiction to try any citizen, under any circumstances, on the strength of a repealed law or a count the Supreme Court has declared non-existent,” the statement added.
AVID accused Britain of knowing what is happening in the case, yet it has chosen silence, indifference and diplomatic paralysis.
“This silence is not neutral, it is not passive, it is not merely irresponsible, but has now become complicity.
“This is because it was the United Kingdom itself, not Nigeria, not the United States, not the EU that originated the very rule now being violated daily against its own citizens.
“Over 300 years ago, the UK through Lord Camden in Entick v. Carrington (1765) 19 Howell’s State Trials 1029 at 1066, laid down the foundational principle: ‘if it is law, it will be found in our books. If it is not to be found there, it is not law.
“This remains the purest statement of the doctrine: Nullum crimen sine lege, no written law, no crime; no valid law, no valid charge,” the statement further said.
AVID, therefore, urged Justice Omotosho to do the only thing the Constitution and the Supreme Court of Nigeria permit, and that is striking out the entire charge and ordering the immediate, unconditional release of Kanu.
