The terrorism case against Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), has been reassigned to a different judge following a directive from the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court in Abuja, John Tsoho.
The special counsel to Kanu, Aloy Ejimakor, disclosed this in a statement on Saturday.
Before the change, Justice Binta Nyako had been presiding over the trial of the IPOB leader.
However, during a court hearing on September 24, 2024, Kanu formally requested that Nyako recuse herself from presiding over the matter, accusing the judge of bias.
The statement read “Yesterday, before the legal team conducted our routine visitation to Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, we received two separate official letters regarding his case. The letters are momentous and somewhat pyrrhic.
“One letter was from the Honourable Chief Justice of Nigeria, 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 Mazi Nnamdi 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 to these latest developments, Kanu instructed the legal team to publicly convey his sincere gratitude to the Chief Justice of Nigeria for her “sound administrative discretions and the despatch with which she responded to our request.”
His legal team also expressed his profound appreciation 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.”
The statement continued “To be sure, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu has always been ready to take his trial because he is firmly convinced of his innocence. But 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.
“It was in view of these untoward developments 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, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu and his legal team shall take stock and hanker down to the zealous preparation of his defence.”
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