What becomes of the continued detention of the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Mazi Nnamdi Kanu will indicate how determined the current Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Kudirat Kekere-ekun, is to walk her talk about upholding the rule of law and ensuring that the cause of justice is served.
According to elder statesman and President of Osisioma Foundation, Dr Chike Obidigbo, who made the assertion in a statement to journalists, weekend, it is unbecoming that a citizen should be held as a prisoner of conscience under a democratic dispensation.
He said that Kanu’s case sticks out like a sore thumb that continues to foul Nigeria’s reputation in the comity of civilised nations, adding that the back and forth that trailed the IPOB leader’s forceful rendition from Kenya leaves the impression that his incarceration is meant to serve a dark political purpose.
Obidigbo said he had expected that as Nigerians celebrated its 64th independence anniversary that Kanu would have been let off the hook as a gesture of national renewal.
He regretted that President Ahmed Bola Tinubu lost a golden opportunity to initiate the process of uniting the country and healing the union after a bitter and divisive general election by failing to make a statement about the fate of the unjustly incarcerated IPOB leader.
“Most of the time when Presidents undertake a national broadcast, the usual expectation of citizens is that the President would use the unique opportunity of public communication to address pressing issues in the polity.
“At the point where President Tinubu talked about the security situation in the country, he disclosed how the nation’s military has been recording successes through a combination of kinetic and non-kinetic means.
“One expected that a word about the only prisoner of conscience in the country would come up as part of the plans to reduce anxiety in the system.
“Whether the Presidency understands the relationship between political peace and economic progress, the Kanu issue remains a sad juncture in the continuing efforts at nation building,” Obidigbo said.
The elder statesman asserted that President Tinubu’s failure to speak about the IPOB leader’s travails and buttress suggested in many quarters that holding Kanu is a political trump card by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
He stated: “Former President Muhammadu Buhari spared no cost to ensure that the IPOB leader was kidnapped and forcefully renditioned from Kenya back to Nigeria in the guise of bringing him to stand trial in court.
“But, reports from the court sessions showed that the trial was a mere cover for political intrigues by Buhari, who never hid his aversion and disdain for NdIgbo. Never before in the history of this country has the Supreme Court’s ruling been subjected to the interpretation or review by a court below.
“The ruse of sending the case file back to the Federal High Court after the apex court had identified Kanu’s forceful rendition as a barrier against his further trial became a ready excuse for extrajudicial imprisonment.
“This injustice is unbecoming of a democratic nation. Kanu’s offence was calling for a referendum to determine and underscore Nigeria’s willingness to live together and whether the union is a willing one or a forced one as dictated by the British colonists with zero input from the natives.”
Obidigbo said the continued detention of Kanu despite pleas from well meaning Igbo elders and friends, appears to be deliberate attacks on the Igbo to keep stoking social unrest that would give anarchist opportunities to continue to unleash mayhem on the South East.
However, he expressed optimism that the coming of another woman as CJN would help to extricate political intrigues from the manipulation of the law against the IPOB leader.
“I was relieved to hear the new CJN assure that under her watch the nation’s judiciary would bounce back as the bastion of justice that Nigerians can proudly behold.
Although she said that improving the Judiciary was a collective responsibility, the CJN maintained that a better Judiciary benefits the entire nation.
“That is why I believe that the Kanu’s case will present the first acid test for the Chief Justice, because it would be clear whether politicians will continue to use the case as a pawn in their power game or the young man should be allowed his freedom instead of suffering double injustice from forced rendition and unclear judicial procedure,” he noted.
