Kanu’s Lawyers Allege Access Denial, Threaten to Boycott Trial

Due to perceived injustices against their client, Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, his legal team has issued a warning that they may boycott court proceedings.

They declared that if the Department of State Services did not uphold the IPOB leader’s right to a fair trial, they would not take part in the proceedings.

The leader of IPOB has been under the DSS’s custody since 2021 and is accused of treason and terrorism.

Justice Binta Nyako of the Federal High Court in Abuja denied his request for bail on the grounds of his health and to allow him to get ready for trial.

Rather, Justice Nyako committed to expediting the case’s hearing.It is anticipated that Kanu’s trial will start on April 17, 2024.

However, Alloy Ejimakor, the leader of his legal team, has been speaking to reporters about the challenges they have encountered in getting the IPOB leader ready for trial.At a press conference in Abuja on April 9, 2024, Ejimakor claimed that the DSS was preventing them from seeing their client.

At a separate news conference on Wednesday in Abuja, Ejimakor threatened to withdraw from the trial if the DSS persisted in impeding their attempts to get Kanu ready for his trial.Ejimakor said that the IPOB leader’s right to a fair trial was being violated by the DSS’s actions.He declared that if the procedure persisted, the legal team would not be involved.

“This legal team is not going to be part of the travesty of justice,” Ejimakor declared. This legal team will not participate in the murder of justice in a Nigerian court if Nnamdi Kanu is not going to receive a fair trial. While we will not give up on Kanu individually, we will give up on the process as a whole. We will not take part in a procedure that is designed to give Kanu the unfair treatment that he deserves.Make that very clear. Although it does not seem like we will boycott Kanu, you could say that we will boycott the judiciary in general, and that we will be boycotting blatant injustice in particular.

Attempts to reach Peter Afunanya, the DSS spokesperson, were unsuccessful since his phone line repeatedly showed “busy.”As of the time this report was filled out, he had also not replied to a message asking for his response to the accusations made against the DSS.