The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has called on the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) to clarify under which law its leader, Nnamdi Kanu, is being prosecuted.
In a statement issued on Thursday by its spokesman, Emma Powerful, IPOB said it was high time the NBA, as the “guardian of legal conscience in Nigeria,” addressed the controversy surrounding Kanu’s ongoing terrorism trial.
The group’s demand follows Kanu’s recent refusal to open his defence, insisting that the Federal Government has no valid case against him.
According to IPOB, the judiciary has failed to specify the extant law under which Kanu is being tried, despite claims that the law previously used against him had already been repealed.
“Instead of renting washed-out and poorly lettered individuals who parade themselves on television and social media to comment on matters far above their understanding, the Nigerian Bar Association should do one very simple thing—since the court has refused to do it,” the statement read.
“Let the NBA tell the world under what existing and subsisting law Mazi Nnamdi Kanu is being tried today. Just one question. Not two. Not three. Under what law? Because the last time we checked, the law under which he was allegedly charged has been repealed.”
Emma Powerful added that the silence of both the judiciary and the NBA raises questions about the credibility of Nigeria’s legal system.
“If the judiciary won’t say it, the NBA should. Unless, of course, they too have decided that the rule of law is now a suggestion, not a standard,” he said.
IPOB maintained that it is not asking for favours, but for truth and fairness, urging the NBA to uphold the principles of justice it claims to represent.
“The world is watching, and history is taking notes,” the statement concluded.
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