Barrister Aloy Ejimakor, special counsel to the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu, has said that new charges against Kanu would not stand till the Federal Government released him (Kanu) from its custody.
Ejimakor made this known in a statement on Friday, where he faulted the position of the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, on his client’s release.
Malami, while reacting to the judgment of the Court of Appeal in Abuja on Thursday, which quashed the charges against Kanu, said that the IPOB leader was only discharged by the court but not acquitted.
Reacting to Malami’s position, Ejimakor said, “The position of AGF Malami on the Court of Appeal judgment regarding Nnamdi Kanu is flatly wrong, and it is perverse to boot.
“If the FG refuses or stalls on releasing Kanu solely because it desires to levy further or new charges, it will amount to a burgeoning holding charge which is impermissible in our jurisprudence.
“Further, no new charges can stick against Kanu because, in the present circumstance, the extraordinary rendition is an abiding factor that has created a permanent barrier to his prosecution.
“Keep in mind that the extant trial of Kanu could never have proceeded had he not been illegally renditioned. So, it is not legally possible to lose jurisdiction in the extant charges and at once obtain jurisdiction in the next round of charges.
“The judgment of the Court of Appeal has therefore grandfathered a continuing lack of prosecutorial jurisdiction that will, in the interim, be very hard to overcome.
“Thus, before levying any new charges can have a toga of legality or chances of conferring prosecutorial jurisdiction, Kanu has to be released first. Anything to the contrary will be nugatory.”
