Judge Withdraws From Nnamdi Kanu's Case After Biafra Leader Again Confronts, Insists Nigeria Lacks Legal Status To Try Him ~ OsazuwaAkonedo #Abuja #Biafra #Binta #ipob #Kanu #Nnamdi #Nyako #UK https://osazuwaakonedo.news/judge-withdraws-from-nnamdi-kanus-case-after-biafra-leader-again-confronts-insists-nigeria-lacks-legal-status-to-try-him/25/09/2024/ #Issues Published: September 25th, 2024 Reshared: September 26, 2024 12:27 pm Justice Binta Nyako of Federal High Court sitting in Abuja have withdrawn from
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00:00Justice Binta Inyako of Federal High Court sitting in Abuja have withdrawn from the case
00:05of the 10th Biafra leader.
00:07Nnamdi Kenyo after the trial could not commence on Tuesday following the Biafra leader's personal
00:12confrontation with the judge for the second time this year.
00:15Nnamdi Kenyo cited Nigeria's Supreme Court rulings and sections of the Nigeria laws to
00:21insist that the West Africa country lacks the legal status to prosecute him for offences
00:26he allegedly committed in England, United Kingdom.
00:30According to Nnamdi Kenyo, the nine count charges were offences he allegedly committed
00:35while he was in the United Kingdom but the federal government of Nigeria has been playing
00:40smart with the case by thus always switching the locations he was when the alleged crimes
00:45were committed.
00:47Nnamdi Kenyo said, before, the federal government said he committed the offences when he was
00:53in England but after presenting his defence in line with previous Supreme Court rulings
00:58and some sections of the Nigeria laws, the government changed the location to Nigeria.
01:04Nnamdi Kenyo said, looking at the impartiality of the trial judge, Justice Binta Inyako, he
01:11cannot continue with the shenanigans of the federal government and the court, insisting,
01:16it is Nigerian law that says the court can't try him because the alleged offences were
01:21not committed when he was in Nigeria.
01:24Nnamdi Kenyo said he has already spent four years in the detention facility of the Department
01:29of State Services, the SS, and if he spend another one year in detention will not kill
01:35him waiting for the Chief Judge of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT to reassign the case
01:41to another judge.
01:43Insisting, what matters is justice, and the law court must obey all the decisions of the
01:49Nigerian Supreme Court of Justice and stop obeying barely the ones that are against him
01:54while ignoring the ones that favoured him.
01:57Nnamdi Kenyo said the persecution of Igbo people will stop with him, adding, he is a
02:03freedom fighter only fighting against the continuous persecution of his people.
02:08Details of the court proceedings as reported by PUNCH newspaper reads thus, at the resumed
02:14hearing in the trial of the leader of the indigenous people of Biafra, Nnamdi Kenyo,
02:20at the Federal High Court in Abuja on Tuesday, Justice Binta Inyaku said she was going to
02:25recuse herself from the trial.
02:28Recuse, as defined by the law.com dictionary, means to refuse to be a judge or for a judge
02:35to agree to a request by one of the parties to step aside in a lawsuit or appeal because
02:40of a conflict of interest or other good reason, acquaintanceship with one of the parties,
02:46for example.
02:48It also applies to a judge or prosecutor being removed.
02:53Inyaku's response to recuse herself from the trial followed Kenyo's request in the open
02:57court that the trial judge recuse herself from his trial since she has refused to obey
03:02the orders of the Supreme Court.
03:04Kenyo is being prosecuted by the federal government on a seven-count bordering on terrorism.
03:11Kenyo stated that he had lost confidence in the court and that the trial judge should
03:15recuse herself from his trial.
03:18Meanwhile, Justice Inyaku replied that she would be happy to do just that.
03:23She added that she would be sending Kenyo's case file back to the chief judge for it to
03:28be reassigned.
03:29Meanwhile, Kenyo ordered his counsel, Aloy Ejimako, to sit down while he was trying to
03:36persuade the court to suspend the trial on the basis that his client was denied the opportunity
03:41to prepare his defense.
03:44Kenyo referred to the Supreme Court judgment where alleged bias against the judge was raised.
03:50Sit down, I say you should sit down, Kenyo had yelled at his lawyer.
03:55Speaking further, he said, My Lord, I have no confidence in this court anymore and I
04:02ask you to recuse yourself because you did not abide by the decision of the Supreme Court.
04:08I can understand it if the judge refuses to obey a court order, but for this court to
04:14refuse to obey an order of the Supreme Court is regrettable.
04:19I am asking you to recuse yourself from this case.
04:22The prosecution counsel, Adeboyega Awamolu, S.A.N., however, tried to urge Justice Inyaku
04:30to proceed with the trial, but she responded that she had been minded to recuse herself
04:35from the case.
04:37I hereby recuse myself and remit the case file back to the chief judge, she declared.
04:43We had reported in May this year that, in a rare case in the history of legal proceedings
04:49in the world, Nnamdi Kanu, the detained leader of the indigenous people of Biafra, Ipom held
04:56himself at the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja on Mone and played the role of a
05:00lawyer with full energy and vibrant command of words with fearless loud voice defended
05:05himself with face to face confrontation with the trial judge, Justice Binta Inyaku and
05:10the Federal Government Prosecution Counsel, Adeboyega Awamolu.
05:15Nnamdi Kanu, while confronting the judge, asked Justice Binta Inyaku why could she be
05:20conducting his trial contrary to the provisions of the laws of Nigeria and international treaties
05:26which Nigeria is signatory to.
05:28A voice of Justice Binta Inyaku could be heard in the video posted online trying to respond
05:34to Nnamdi Kanu queries but the commanding voice and continuous marshalling of words
05:38with historical citation of facts and sections of the laws by Nnamdi Kanu surprised the voice
05:44of the judge.
05:46The video shows Nnamdi Kanu speaking at a corridor in front of a mini office inside
05:51the courtroom where Justice Binta Inyaku was inside listening and tried to respond to the
05:56detained Biafra leader's confrontations and allegations of injustice and intimidation.
06:02Nnamdi Kanu, according to BBC, also confronted the Federal Government Prosecution Lawyer,
06:09Adeboyega Awamolu and called him a terrorist.
06:12Kanu pointed at FG lawyer, Adeboyega Awamolu and said in quote thus, you are a terrorist.
06:20You now get power to try me.
06:22Nnamdi Kanu actions and reactions began when the trial judge, Justice Binta Inyaku denied
06:28him bail or refused to grant him house arrest.
06:32The court ruling forced Nnamdi Kanu to raise his hand and insisted of addressing the court
06:37himself.
06:38Nnamdi Kanu on Monday after the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja dismissed his French
06:43bail application for him to be removed from the Department of State Service, DSS, while
06:49speaking with news reporters, said that Nigerian court seeking to try him is committing an
06:54act of terrorism.
06:56Nnamdi Kanu condemned Nigerian government for allegedly violating the provisions of
07:01Terrorism Prevention and Prohibition Act by seeking to try him.
07:06Justice Binta Inyaku had on Monday dismissed Kanu's French application seeking the restoration
07:11of his revoked bail and his removal from the DSS custody to a house arrest or prison custody.
07:19Justice Inyaku dismissed the application for lacking in merit and ruled that Kanu had brought
07:24the same application before the court.
07:27Reacting to the claim that the Supreme Court's ruling in 2023 indicating that Kanu did not
07:33jump bail, Justice Inyaku said that she found, as a fact, that the IPOC leader jumped the
07:39bail granted to him earlier and that he escaped out of Nigeria.
07:45Justice Inyaku in her ruling said that the shortest who stood for Kanu in the earlier
07:49bail had applied to be discharged and had been discharged on the ground that the court
07:54not locate Kanu and did not know his whereabouts.
07:59Justice Binta Inyaku stated further that the only option left for Kanu was to go to
08:03the Court of Appeal and should proceed to the Appellate Court to exercise his right
08:07of appeal.
08:09The judge overruled the claim of Kanu's lead counsel that the Supreme Court held that the
08:14earlier bail granted him ought not to have been revoked.
08:19According to the judge, she has perused the Supreme Court judgment copy and did not see
08:25the claim by Kanu's lawyer.
08:27Elked by the ruling, Kanu said that Section 2.3.F of Terrorism Prevention and Prohibition
08:34Act provided that any court seeking to try him was committing an act of terrorism.
08:40Kanu insisted that he did not jump bail earlier granted to him and that no Nigerian court
08:46could try him.
08:47Terrorism Prohibition Act says I cannot be tried in Nigeria.
08:52I can never be tried in any court of law in Nigeria.
08:56That is what the law says.
08:59Anybody coming to try me is a terrorist.
09:01That is what the law says.
09:04Section 2.3.F of Terrorism Prevention and Prohibition Act says that any court trying to try me is
09:10committing an act of terrorism.
09:13You cannot violate a treaty that Nigeria entered into and come to try that person.
09:19It is not done anywhere in the world.
09:22That is why there is all these ridiculous delays.
09:25The Supreme Court said that I did not jump bail.
09:28My home was invaded.
09:30They came to kill me and I survived.
09:33They came to Kenya to kidnap me, brought me back to this country and seeking to try me,
09:39which the law says cannot happen.
09:41You cannot violate a treaty that Nigeria entered into and hope to stand on that illegality
09:47to conduct a trial.
09:49It is not done anywhere in the world.
09:51With no exception whatsoever, Section 12 of the Constitution, Nigeria, says that any
09:57treaty ratified by Nigeria becomes a law.
10:01You cannot change it.
10:02It doesn't matter what they do.
10:05All this shenanigans is just pure rubbish.
10:08I believe in fairness and justice.
10:10Nnamdi Kanu stated in quote.
10:21These are the things that the public must understand.
10:24Most of you journalists, the legal correspondents, you don't take time to actually study some
10:28of these rulings and judgments.
10:31Go and study.
10:32In fact, I'll give you.
10:33What is this?
10:34I'll give it to her because I think she's a bit.
10:35I want to let the whole world understand something very, very clear.
10:51In all this, this is the judgment of the Supreme Court.
10:54It may be very clear, but even that the impartiality of the judge is questionable.
11:03And it's here that is a please do bear with me.
11:08It says it here.
11:09What is it?
11:10What is that again?
11:11Well, well, well, well, well, well, it says all these things are online.
11:16This is not page 18.
11:18All these things are online.
11:19So I suggest that the journalists in this country actually take our time to do some
11:22basic research.
11:23It's not difficult.
11:25Just minor research.
11:26You will understand the vacuousness, the emptiness of all the charges against me.
11:32They kept, they kept switching the charges.
11:36They said I committed this crime in England, isn't it?
11:39Yes.
11:40I made a broadcast in England.
11:41Yes.
11:42And in nine charges leveled against me, this place where I committed this crime was London
11:49United Kingdom.
11:50Yes.
11:51When my lawyers came to see me, I had a discussion with them about how I'm going to defend myself.
11:57I told them that no court in Nigeria has jurisdiction to try me because, because since this offense
12:05was committed in England.
12:06So they said it's only a UK court that can give a Nigerian court the authority to proceed,
12:10isn't it?
12:11Based on that, they now amended the charge again, I removed London location of the location
12:18of the broadcast.
12:19Contrary to section one, what was it, one, one, one, one ninety six, one seventy four
12:25of the terrorism prevention act in violation of their own laws, in violation of their own
12:30laws.
12:31And you want me to stand trial under such circumstances?
12:33Is that possible?
12:34I'm the kind of to stand trial where all these managements are going on.
12:36It's not possible.
12:37You've asked justice Binta to recuse herself.
12:38Do you have the time in your hands for the case to go to the CEJ for it to be re-assigned
12:45to another judge?
12:47As long as justice will be done at the end of the day, that's what bothers me.
12:50For justice to be done, I cannot be tried in violation of a key provision of the constitution
12:57of Nigeria, section 36.
12:58It's as simple as that.
12:59But now she's saying the part of the topic I'm making reference to was a contributory
13:04statement by one of the justices.
13:07The constitution of Nigeria says any determination made by the Supreme Court is binding on a
13:13lower court.
13:14So I was actually surprised that a high court have refused to obey or abide by the determination
13:22of a Supreme Court judgment.
13:24And then take the only part that is against him and then refuse to apply the part that
13:29is in favor of him.
13:31This cherry-picking of what was contained in the Supreme Court judgment is what I'm
13:35against.
13:36It should be implemented holistically.
13:37I'm not against facing any trial.
13:38After all, I'm innocent.
13:39They haven't been against me.
13:43But there cannot be any trial when key sections of the constitution and a key Supreme Court
13:49judgment has been violated by a court of law.
13:52So you'll be patient for the case to go back and come back to court?
13:56This is my fourth year in solitary confinement in detention.
14:00The fifth year will not kill me.
14:01We have many of that.
14:02One last question.
14:03With reference to what she has acted earlier, the justice being told that she is one of
14:10the senior judges in this court, what if this case comes back to her?
14:21This persecution of the Igbo people, this orchestrated, almost global persecution of
14:28a people stops with me.
14:30It cannot happen.
14:31It can never happen.
14:32That is why we do what we do.
14:34That is why I do what I do.
14:35I am campaigning for the freedom of my people because of the persecution that we are facing.
14:39It's as simple as that.
14:41Nothing more, nothing less.