The lead attorney for Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB), Aloy Ejimakor, has raised alarm over the treatment of his client. Ejimakor claims that Kanu has been placed under “absolute” solitary confinement by the Nigerian secret police, the Department of State Services (DSS).
Kanu, who is facing charges of terrorism and felony, criticized the trial judge, Justice Binta Nyako, in court on Tuesday. He accused her of disobeying an order of a superior court.
At a resumed sitting, the IPOB leader had ordered his counsel, Aloy Ejimakor, to sit down while he referred to the judgment of the Supreme Court where alleged bias against the judge was raised. While Ejimakor was trying to persuade the court to suspend the trial because Kanu was denied the opportunity to prepare his defense, the detained Kanu rose from his seat and ordered his lawyer to sit down.
“Sit down! I say you should sit down!” Kanu roared from the dock. “My lord, I have no confidence in this court anymore and I ask you to recuse yourself because you did not abide by the decision of the Supreme Court.
“I can understand it if the DSS refuses to obey a court order, but for this court to refuse to obey an order of the Supreme Court is regrettable.
“I am asking you to recuse yourself from this case,” Kanu stated.
Though the prosecution counsel, Adegboyega Awomolo, SAN, urged the court to proceed with the trial, Justice Binta Nyako said she was minded to recuse herself from the case.
“I hereby recuse myself and remit the case file back to the Chief Judge,” she held.
In a press release on Friday, Ejimakor stated that the DSS, in violation of existing court orders and the Constitution, has denied the legal team access to Kanu. He suggested that the DSS has canceled all future visitations as retaliation against Kanu for allegedly embarrassing the judge and forcing her to withdraw from the case.
Ejimakor contends that by isolating Kanu “unlawfully“, the government has made his “solitary confinement absolute“.
“I don’t know when next, if ever, it may be possible to see Mazi Nnamdi Kanu again,” he lamented.
Kanu maintains that his trial is ethnically prejudiced due to his Igbo ancestry, which he argues justifies his demand for a separate homeland. Since his abduction from Kenya in 2021, Kanu’s trial has primarily focused on bail applications, with the substantive trial yet to even commence.
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