After some weeks of suspense, the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Justice John Tsoho has directed that the case file in Nnamdi Kanu’s treason trial should be returned to Justice Binta Nyako for the continuation of his trial.
Justice Nyako recused herself from the case on September 24 at the instance of the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) who demanded that the judge hands off the case on account of alleged bais.
Justice Nyako’s withdrawal on September 24 made it the third time a judge would be abandoning the case at the instance of the defendant
Kanu first appeared before the Federal High Court on December 23, 2015 in relation to the case.
He was taken, along with some others, before Justice Mohammed (now a Justice of the Court of Appeal).
Before any steps could be taken in the case, Kanu objected to being tried before the judge, claiming he was not sure he could get justice.
The judge subsequently withdrew from the case, following which it was reassigned to a new judge.
On September 26, 2016, Kanu and his then co-defendants were taken before Justice Tsoho (who was then the second most senior judge of the court).
Justice Tsoho later withdrew from the case following a petition by Kanu’s lawyers to the National Judicial Council (NJC).
In the petition, Kanu’s lawyers accused the judge of making conflicting decisions in an application by the prosecution to be allowed to shield its witnesses from public view, which they claimed would not guaranty fairness and justice for the defendants.
Ruling on September 26, 2016, Justice Tsoho (who is now the court’s Chief Judge) returned the case file to the then Chief Judge, Justice Abdu Kafarati.
The case was subsequently reassigned to Justice Nyako in 2016.
However, the 24 September proceedings took a dramatic turn when the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) roared from the dock demanding that the judge should hands off his trial, claiming that he no longer has confidence in getting a just and fair trial from her.
Kanu shouted his lawyer down and asked the judge to withdraw from the case.
“Sit down! I say you should sit down!” Mr Kanu yelled from the dock at his lawyer, Aloy Ejimakor, and turned to the judge, to express his lack of confidence in the court.
“I am asking you to recuse yourself from this case,” he told the judge, who he accused of disobeying a Supreme Court judgement admonishing that his rights should be respected while facing trial.
Despite the prosecuting counsel, Chief Adegboyega Awomolo’s efforts to persuade the judge to continue hearing the case, Mrs Nyako announced her decision to recuse herself. “I hereby recuse myself and remit the case file back to the Chief Judge,” she ruled.
However, Saturday Sun learnt that John Tsoho, has directed Justice Nyako to resume sitting on the case to allow Mr Kanu’s lawyer, Mr Ejimakor, to file an application laying the grounds for the judge’s recusal.
The Chief Judge’s directive to Justice Nyako is to enable her to hear Nnamdi Kanu’s written application seeking her withdrawal from the case,” a source said.
Competent sources disclosed that Mr Kanu’s counsel, Alloy Ejimakor, has been asked to file the recusal application on the federal government lawyer, Mr Awomolo, SAN, to elicit the prosecution’s response to the request.
Justice Tsoho’s condition, it was gathered, was to prevent a repeat of what happened in the money laundering case involving the former Governor of Benue State, Gabriel Suswam, in which the Court of Appeal overruled Justice Ahmed Mohammed, who had withdrawn from the case.
The Court of Appeal was of the view that Justice Mohammed did not withdraw properly because no proceedings were conducted for parties to address the court on whether or not the judge should withdraw.
