Featured, Politics
AMIDST fancy stories on how Nnamdi Kanu was arrested, the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law, INTERSOCIETY, has given a saner perspective on what actually happened.
According to INTERSOCIETY, Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, was arrested on Saturday night, June 26, in Kenya, a member of the African Union. The South East-based civil society and human rights organisation said Kanu had travelled to Israel, having transited from Germany to Israel before heading to Kenya, where he was intercepted on Saturday night, June 26.
INTERSOCIETY, in a statement made available to Realnews on Wednesday, June 30, said that Kanu appeared to have been trapped by some persons of his own tribal stock over some lingering issues. “His arrest was initially taken to be ‘a minor immigration issue’, which later turned out to be a clear act of ‘strawmen’ and subsequently attracted the involvement of the Nigerian diplomatic officials and security attachés at Nairobi, the country’s capital.”
The IPOB leader was later on Sunday, June 27, handed over to Nigerian security attaches and diplomatic officials after providing paper evidence that ‘he is being wanted in Nigeria for continuation of his trial where he jumped bail’ and escaped ‘from judicial justice’.
Realnews reports that Kanu to the surprise of most Nigerians was produced in court on Tuesday, June 29 by S.M. Labaran, a lawyer from the office of the attorney general of the federation. He was remanded in custody of the Department of State Services, DSS, by Justice Binta Nyako of the Federal High Court, Abuja. His trial will take place on July 26 and 27.
After the court session, Abubakar Malami, minister to justice and attorney general of the federation, briefed the press about Kanu’s arrest without given any information on how and where it was made. This prompted fake news merchants to produce fairy tales about Kanu being arrested in different countries including Brazil, Canada, Ethiopia, while philandering.
Nonetheless, INTERSOCIETY has commended the Nigerian government for bringing Kanu safely to the country and at the same time express concern over his safety in custody in the country.
Worries Over Kanu’s Safety In Custody And Hateful/Selective Law Enforcement:
The International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law is not worried over the recent arrest and bringing back of the IPOB Leader, but is deeply concerned over his safety, healthcare and upkeep in the custody of the country’s Spy Police where he may likely remain throughout his trial period.
“The Nigerian Government also deserves to be ‘commended’ for not bringing the IPOB Leader in ‘Body Bag’. In other words, we are happy that the Nigerian Government did not ‘kill him extra-judicially on transit and falsely labelled’ the circumstances of his death, a notorious practice that has become the government’s modus operandi in recent times,” INTERSOCIETY said.
Intersociety said it has remained opposed to all forms of offensive violence and a stickler of pacifism. “As an apostle of ‘positive peace’ or absence of structural, cultural and physical violence’, we challenge the Nigerian government and aggrieved non state actors to eschew violence and embrace dialogue and reconciliation.
“To ensure this, the Nigerian government must ensure the round-the-clock safety and welfare of the IPOB leader in its custody as it will be more catastrophically untamed should anything untoward happens to him. The government should consider granting him and his group amnesty including withdrawal of all charges against him and his members, same way the government has been treating the “repentant Boko Haram and Banditry Jihadists” as well as un-tagging of IPOB as ‘a terror group’”, it said.
No Fanfare Over Kanu’s Arrest At International Borders:
According to Intersociety, “It is important to point out that the across border arrest of the IPOB leader is part of the criminal justice administration and law enforcement applicable globally covering crimes of ‘mala inse’ and ‘mala prohibita’. While ‘mala inse’ represents crimes with universal application or enforcement; ‘mala prohibita’ represents crimes to the extent that they are recognized, defined and enforced by a particular country or jurisdiction.
“In the application or enforcement of the two crimes anywhere in the world, if a national or international citizen is standing trial under presumption of innocence until found judicially guilty and he or she is reported to have fled the jurisdiction under which he or she was standing trial, it is allowed under the international law and through legitimate diplomatic means to use non lethal measures to bring him or her back to face and complete his or her trial. Exception to this rule is where he or she is running away from legitimate state persecution including attempts on his or her life and grave infringement on his or her other fundamental liberties. Under this, he or she is expected to be protected by the country that offers him or her temporary and protective shelter; otherwise he or she can be arrested and sent back to his or her country for continuation of the trial. Therefore, it is on record that the IPOB Leader did not flee Nigeria out of his own freewill in September 2017 but he escaped from being assassinated by the security forces of the Federal Government of Nigeria.
It noted that “The Government’s ‘defense’ of Kanu breaching his court bail conditions or inciting his followers against the Nigerian Government as reasons for wanting to kill him extra-judicially did not hold water. This is more so when the same Government could have made a legitimate case before the trial Court for the revocation of his bail conditions, if truly found to have been breached.”
The INTERSOCIETY statement was signed by its principal officers – Emeka Umeagbalasi, Obianuju Igboeli, and Chidimma Udegbunam.
Trial of Kanu
Prior to his previous arrest and re-arrest, Kanu has been a thorn in the flesh of the federal government with his scathing criticisms of the malfeasance in governance and asking for a referendum to determine the status of a Biafra nation.
Realnews recalls that Kanu was arrested alongside three others on October 14, 2015, in Lagos. Kanu and his co-defendants have been facing treasonable felony charges at the Federal High Court in Abuja. He was granted bail by Justice Binta Nyako on April 25, 2017, on health grounds. The judge adjourned the matter to November.
He breached the bail conditions and continued to influence his followers through the media. Before the adjourned date, he fled the country in September 2017, after the invasion of his home by the military in Afara-Ukwu, near Umuahia, Abia State. Some of his followers were killed in the incident.
Thereafter, the Nigerian government obtained a court order on September 20, 2017, to designate IPOB a terrorist group and to proscribe it. But this did not stop Kanu who continued to used his Radio Biafra in his London base to influence a lot of his followers and to demand for an independent Biafran country from the Nigeria through referendum
