‘Nigerian govt should admit wrongdoing’ – Ejimakor reacts to US report on Nnamdi Kanu

Aloy Ejimakor, the principal legal representative of Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), responded on Saturday to the United States report regarding the Biafra activist.

Ejimakor called on the Nigerian government to acknowledge its mistakes in Kanu’s trial and bring the prosecution to a swift conclusion, “without delay.”

The US “2023 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Nigeria” highlighted that Nigerian security forces violated Kanu’s rights during his arrest and extradition, stating that he was arbitrarily detained in June 2021.

In response to the report, Ejimakor praised the US for officially and openly recognizing the illegality of Kanu’s extradition.

A statement signed by Ejimakor reads: “The attention of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu’s Legal Team has been drawn to an official publication (a few days ago) by the United States government, captioned: “2023 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Nigeria,” whereby the US government acknowledged the obvious that “Nigeria’s secret police had violated Kanu’s rights during his arrest and extradition” and that Kanu was a victim of “arbitrary arrest” in June 2021.

“On behalf of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, his Legal Team hereby expresses its profound appreciation to the Government of the United States including, in particular, the US Mission in Nigeria. It is indeed a demonstration of diplomatic courage.

“It needs to be emphasized that this laudable position the US government has waited for almost three years to take and make public is surely well-considered and thus important for two reasons.

“First, it affirms the case-in-chief we have adduced since June 2021 that Mazi Nnamdi Kanu was unlawfully renditioned, not lawfully extradited. These are two opposite concepts that bear dissimilar legal implications.

“Second, it is expected that – coming from a respected and an influential foreign power like the United States – this public acknowledgement will likely encourage the Government of Nigeria to also acknowledge that it had gravely violated Kanu’s inalienable human rights by subjecting him to a horrendous extraordinary rendition.

“To be sure, one way the Government of Nigeria can come clean and acknowledge this egregious wrong done to Mazi Nnamdi Kanu is to banish any further temptations to impunity and summon its powers and discretions under the Constitution to bring the prosecution of Nnamdi Kanu to closure, without further ado.

“In our view, this is the most sensible thing to do because Kanu’s prosecution has, by effluxion of time, become attritional and questionable to boot, given that it was initiated almost a decade ago in 2015 and for alleged offences that are no longer in play.

“There are other cogent reasons, including the open and notorious fact that it is becoming increasingly clear that Nnamdi Kanu may never get a fair trial by dint of the grave complications created by the locale of his current detention.”