The federal government’s case against Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), has been reassigned to another judge and with it, the official recusal of Justice Binta Nyako from the case, Kanu’s lead counsel, Aloy Ejimakor has disclosed.
According to the legal counsel, the directive reassigning the case came in two separate letters by the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, dated February 5, and Chief Judge (CJ) of Federal High Court (FHC), Justice John Tsoho, dated March 4, and addressed to Chief Ejimakor.
Justice Binta Nyako, the former trial judge, had, on Feb. 10, adjourned Kanu’s trial indefinitely following the insistence by the IPOB leader and his legal team that the matter be reassigned after Justice Nyako had recused herself from the case on Sept. 24, 2024.
By this development, it means that the CJN and the FHC CJ had finally responded to Kanu’s legal team’s complaint letters, Ejimakor noted in a statement made available to newsmen on Saturday – today, March 8 – said.
“Yesterday, before the legal team conducted our routine visitation to our client, we received two separate official letters regarding his case,” the legal counsel said.
“The letters are momentous and somewhat pyrrhic. One letter was from the CJN, responding to a recent letter we had written to her, seeking her prompt administrative intervention (as the administrative head of Nigerian judiciary) on the matter of a proper and lawful reassignment of Kanu’s case, following the recusal of the judge that was conducting it.
“The other letter was from the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, informing us that the case has been reassigned to another Judge of the Federal High Court.
“Consequent upon these latest developments, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu instructed the legal team to publicly convey his sincere gratitude to the Chief Justice of Nigeria for her sound administrative discretion and the dispatch with which she responded to our request.
“He also expressed his profound appreciations to members of the general public who publicly expressed their support for our righteous demands that Mazi Nnamdi Kanu’s case be reassigned to another Judge, as the law demands.”
According to Ejimakor, Kanu had always been ready to take his trial “because he is firmly convinced of his innocence.”
However, the perverse events of the past six months (from September 2024, when the recusal happened) posed portent dangers to his constitutional rights, particularly his right to fair and speedy hearing, the counsel agonized.
“It was in view of this that we were propelled to resort to taking extraordinary measures to ensure that his case is properly reassigned and conducted in accordance with the law.
“So, now that the first steps have been taken by the authorities to do the lawful thing, Kanu and his legal team shall take stock and hanker down to a zealous preparation of his defense,” Ejimakor concluded.
