Aloy Ejimakor, the lead counsel of Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, has said the Biafra agitator ought to have been released by the Supreme Court ruling of December 15, 2023.
Ejimakor said the Supreme Court had ruled that Kanu was on bail and in custody of the law when his home was illegally invaded by military officers.
Recall that Justice Binta Nyako of an Abuja Federal High Court had granted Kanu bail in 2017. Shortly after the bail, the IPOB leader eloped to Europe after military personnel invaded his residence in the Afaraukwu area of Abia State.
He was however rearrested in Kenya and repatriated to Nigeria in 2021.
Since his repatriation, Kanu had remained in the custody of the Department of State Services, DSS, as the Nigerian government refused to release him despite orders by the Appeal Court.
However, Ejimakor said Kanu left Nigeria after the military invasion to preserve his life.
Posting on X, Ejimakor wrote: “It’s not wrong for anybody to say that MAZI NNAMDI KANU ought to be freed on the basis of the 15th December 2023 judgment of the Supreme Court because, despite remitting the case for trial, the Court also held that Kanu “was on bail and therefore in custody of the law when his home was illegally invaded by heavily armed military officers of the appellant causing him to flee from his home and the country to secure his life. In the face of such an attack, it was responsible for him to flee to secure his life and physical well being.
“That is what any normal and reasonable human being would do in that circumstance to preserve his life and physical well-being. It is glaring that the consequences of that attack were intended or foreseeable. This is not arguable. The appellant’s officials knew that their invasion of the respondent’s home caused him to tun away to secure his life and physical well-being.”