IPOB: Kanu Family Seeks Sanctions Against High Court Chief Judge, Justice Binta
The family of the detained leader of Indigenous People of Biafra ( IPOB ), Nnamdi Kanu has called for the sanction of the Chief Judge of Federal High Court, Justice John Tsoho and Justice Binta Nyako over disobedience to court orders.
The family said the flagrant disobedience to the valid court order by Justice Tsoho and Binta as presiding judge has brought the judiciary into disrepute.
In a statement signed by Kanu’s brother, Prince Emmanuel kanu on behalf of the family on Sunday in Abuja and made available to journalists, the family highlighted key judicial pronouncements from Nigerian courts and international bodies, all of which have ruled in favour of Kanu’s release.
The statement commended the timely intervention of the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Kudirat Motonmori Olatokunbo Kekere-Ekun in ensuring that the decade long trial of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu is duly re-assigned to a competent judge devoid of bias.
The statement read, “Whilst we welcome the timely intervention of the Honourable Chief Justice of Nigeria in ensuring that the decade long sham trial of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu is duly assigned to a competent judge untainted by bias or one that openly and unashamedly pander to tribal sentiments or exhibit the tendency to succumb to executive manipulation; we find it shocking that it required the involvement of the conscious public and that of the most senior judicial officer in Nigeria for Binta Nyako to obey her own order of recusal she made in her own court.”
The family stressed that, “In any sane country that takes adherence to the rule of law seriously, both John Tsoho the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court and Binta Nyako the presiding judge that made the recusal order ought to be sanctioned for bringing the judiciary into disrepute.
“Is it not bizarre that a judge blatantly refused to obey an order of court? A chief judge that sought to set aside a valid court order by way of a phantom memo (written note) and a presiding judge that blatantly refused to honour the order she enrolled in her own court have no business being on the bench.”
The statement said, “It is even more shocking that some poorly informed, self-appointed defenders of judicial impunity in Nigeria, would dare argue on the pages of newspapers and media interviews that a judge can ignore a valid court order. Shocking!
“At the heart of this long running saga is the attempt by the state of Nigeria to criminalise self determination which is a right guaranteed by law.
“If people were to take the time to study the origin of the persecution of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu and the travails he continues to face and endure, they would understandably come to the conclusion that what is happening with the illegal and criminal proscription of IPOB in Abuja courts by haters of the Igbo race is not far removed from what transpired prior to the unleashing of the pogrom and genocidal war that claimed 5 million Igbo lives in 1966.
“The same way 1966 coup was tagged an Igbo coup and used as cover to unleash the Holocaust on the Biafra nation, is how they aim to use the cover of terrorism (IPOB proscription) to eliminate the youthful populations of the East and jail Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.
“The purveyors of this false narrative that Mazi Nnamdi Kanu is the leader of an outlawed group have never asked themselves how come a court of law in the same Abuja found that IPOB is not an unlawful group, only for Abubakar Malami- instead of going on appeal, went to the chambers of his fellow Fulani and hater of the Igbo race in the person of Justice Kafarati to declare IPOB a terrorist organisation without following due process of law as outlined in the constitution of Nigeria.
“Today traducers of the self determination of Biafra have latched on to this illegal ex-parte proscription order to charge Mazi Nnamdi Kanu with facilitating terrorism but have completely forgotten that the same Abuja court ruled that IPOB is not an unlawful group. Selective obedience and disobedience to court orders is the issue facing Nigeria in this case and we must all confront it.
“This matter has only just begun and by the time this sham trial is finished, Nigerian judiciary and their injudicious selective justice will be exposed for the world to see. It is inconceivable that the damage the Nigerian judiciary is about to suffer will ever be eradicated from the minds of the populace.
The statement added that no society within common law can hope to use an outcome in a civil suit to confer criminal liability on an accused person. The family insisted that the proscription of IPOB upon which the whole charges are base were made in a civil process without fair hearing, so it cannot fly.
IPOB: Kanu Family Seeks Sanctions Against High Court Chief Judge, Justice Binta is first published on The Whistler Newspaper
