Why I prefer to remain in prison than face trial before Justice Nyako

Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the outlawed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has vowed that he will never stand trial again before Justice Binta Nyako of the Federal High Court, Abuja.

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Mr Kanu, who faces terrorism charges at the Federal High Court in Abuja, spoke in an open letter to Nigerians on Friday.

His special counsel, Aloy Ejimakor, uploaded a copy of the letter on his X handle on Sunday.

The IPOB leader has been in detention since he was repatriated to Nigeria from Kenya in June 2021 under controversial circumstances.

IPOB is a group seeking the secession of the South-east and some parts of the South-south from Nigeria.

‘Why I’ll never stand trial before the judge again’

During the court’s hearing on 24 September 2024, Mr Kanu requested that Mrs Nyako recuse herself from presiding over the matter, accusing the judge of bias.

The judge subsequently announced her withdrawal from the matter, but the chief judge of the Federal High Court later reassigned the matter to Mrs Nyako.

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Since then, Mr Kanu and his team of lawyers have repeatedly opposed Justice Nyako from presiding over the case.

In his open letter, the IPOB leader said he would not stand trial before Mrs Nyako again because she has recused herself from the case.

“If it will take the rest of my life in detention to produce me before a proper and impartial court, so be it.

“But let me say this for the world to know: I will not succumb to any trial conducted by any judge or court whose jurisdiction does not pass constitutional muster. Not now, not ever,” Mr Kanu vowed.

Request for recusal

Mr Kanu also said he successfully requested Mrs Nyako’s recusal from the case in September because the judge allegedly showed bias by ordering his detention at the facility of the State Security Service (SSS) without a fair hearing.

Mr Kanu further claimed the judge refused to transfer him to a correctional prison facility to better prepare for his trial and subsequently declined to obey a Supreme Court ruling which ordered his bail be restored.

He said the judge ordered an accelerated trial “in the face of the reality that I will never get a fair trial whilst detained at the SSS (facility).”

“These are the major reasons that compelled me to request recusal of the judge and having consented to it, she proceeded to make an order removing herself from my case.

“That order was never challenged on appeal; thus, it remains extant to this day,” he said.

Mr Kanu criticised the Federal High Court chief judge for reassigning the case to Mrs Nyako despite her recusal, alleging that the chief judge may have connived with Nigerian authorities to convict him.

The IPOB leader stressed that the reassignment of the case to Mrs Nyako was not due to a lack of “decent judges in Nigeria that can be trusted to deliver even-handed justice.”

“That is not the issue. Instead, the issue is that my case is deliberately being shielded from judges and justices that are deemed to be committed to doing justice even when it means that the federal government must lose,” he alleged.

‘My abduction from Kenya and stay of execution order wrong’

In the open letter, Mr Kanu recalled how the Nigerian government repatriated him to Nigeria from Kenya in 2021, noting that the court had declared that the action was in violation of his fundamental human rights and local and International laws.

He said the court also held that by his forcible abduction and extraordinary rendition, Nigerian courts are “divested of jurisdiction to entertain charges” against him.

“In a responsible and well-ordered society, run by a responsible government, this judgment is sufficient to have ended my lengthy detention and encourage the federal government to constructively engage me on the issue of the self-determination agitation that triggered this whole saga,” he said.

The IPOB leader expressed sadness that on 13 October 2022, he was discharged and acquitted by a Court of Appeal in Abuja, but the Nigerian government went on to appeal against the ruling without first obeying it by releasing him.

“Despite the clarity of this judgment and its comportment with reason, the federal government refused to release me from detention while it went behind closed doors and connived with three other justices of the Court of Appeal who fraudulently and swiftly sat on appeal over the judgment and practically destroyed it by issuing what they termed ‘a stay of execution,’” he stated.

“In a plethora of cases, the Supreme Court has held that anybody who disobeys a related court order cannot be given any judicial relief until such order is obeyed.”

Background

Mr Kanu was first arrested in 2015 under the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari.

The Court of Appeal, Abuja, on 13 October 2022, held that the IPOB leader was extraordinarily renditioned to Nigeria and that the action was a flagrant violation of the country’s extradition treaty and also a breach of his fundamental human rights.

The court, therefore, struck out the terrorism charges filed against Mr Kanu by the Nigerian government and ordered his release from the facility of the State Security Service

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But the government refused to release the IPOB leader, insisting that he (Kanu) could be unavailable in subsequent court proceedings if released and that his release would cause insecurity in the South-east, where he comes from.

The government, through the office of the Attorney-General of the Federation, later appealed the court ruling and subsequently obtained an order staying the execution of the court judgement at the Supreme Court.

Delivering judgement on the appeal on 15 December 2023, the Supreme Court reversed the acquittal granted to Mr Kanu by the lower court and consequently ordered continuation of his trial at the Federal High Court Abuja.