Supreme Court has declared that Nnamdi Kanu never jumped bail – Ejimakor

 

Joseph Irikefe

 

Aloy Ejimakor, the Special Counsel to Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), on Saturday said the Supreme Court has settled the controversy that the agitator never jumped bail.

Ejimakor said the Supreme Court also clarified that Kanu’s bail should not have been revoked.

Recall that in 2017, Justice Binta Nyako of a Federal High Court in Abuja had granted Kanu bail.

Upon his release, a military invasion of his ancestral home in Umuahia, Abia State, in September 2017, forced into exile, hence he did not attend his trial on the next scheduled date and thereafter.

From then till June 2021 when he was transferred from Kenya to Nigeria, there has been a robust public debate as to whether he jumped bail or not.

But, the Appeal Court had discharged and acquitted Kanu of all terrorism charges.

This judgment was later overturned by the Supreme Court which transferred the case back to the Federal High Court.

In the Certified True Copy of the judgment delivered in December 2023, the apex court declared that Kanu did not jump bail.

Commenting on this, Ejimakor, said: “As Of Counsel, I had joined in this debate and always made it clear that Nnamdi Kanu, in the unique circumstance of the military invasion, did not jump bail. I had also written well-publicized legal treatises, maintaining that this self-evident truth will be proved and confirmed in Court in due course of time.”

He said the first judicial confirmation came in January 2022 when, in a landmark judgment, the High Court of Abia State declared that the said military invasion was a flagrant violation of Kanu’s constitutional rights, consequent upon the Court awarded him N1 billion in damages and public apology.

He said: “Following this judgment, I had issued a public Legal Notice warning all and sundry to thenceforth cease and desist from peddling the falsehood that Nnamdi Kanu had jumped bail. Whereas, vast majorities of the mainstream and social media had complied, some malicious traducers and elements from the federal government persisted with the defamatory bail-jumping narrative.

“In summation, in addition to ruling that Nnamdi Kanu never jumped bail, the Supreme Court also held that the Federal High Court should never have revoked his bail; that the prosecution wrought grand deception on the Court on the bail-jumping issue and that the bench warrant that triggered Nnamdi Kanu’s infamous extraordinary rendition was obtained by deception and should never have been issued.

“For the foregoing reasons, I implore the media, members of the public and pertinent public officials to abide by the judgment of the Supreme Court and henceforth cease and desist from peddling or publishing the false and defamatory narrative that Nnamdi Kanu had jumped bail.”