Barrister Ifeanyi Ejiofor, the legal counsel to the embattled leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Mazi Nnamdi Kanu has disclosed that the Supreme Court will fix a date soon to hear his client’s appeal against the Federal Government concerning his continuous detention.
Ejiofor, in a statement on Monday (today), said the Supreme Court, which formally resumes the new Legal Year on Monday (today), will, in a matter of days, pick a date for the hearing because the court will formally commence hearing of appeals next week.
Recall that Kanu had on November 3, 2022, filed an appeal at the Supreme Court against the Court of Appeal’s October 28, 2022 verdict, which stayed the execution of its earlier order discharging and acquitting him of all charges and directing his release from the custody of the secret police.
However, the apex court had adjourned the hearing to September 14, which fell within the Supreme Court’s annual vacation period.
Ejiofor, in the statement, recounted how Kanu’s lead counsel, Mike Ozekhome (SAN), had formally requested the Court’s approval of September 28, 2023, as the new scheduled date for the hearing of the appeal following the cancellation of the earlier scheduled date.
He explained that “There is a positive indication that in the coming days, a confirmation or otherwise of the proposed new date will be made public upon our Lead Counsel’s feedback.
“Our request is simple – let this appeal be heard with every urgency it deserves so that the fate of Onyendu Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, who has been illegally held in the solitary confinement of the SSS, will be determined, having been discharged of all the frivolous criminal charge against him since the 13th day of October 2022.
“The Federal Government of Nigeria has continued to detain him in custody in clear violation of this subsisting Judgment, and Orders of the Court of Appeal that directed for his unconditional release, and consequently, prohibited his further trial before any Court in Nigeria or detention in any custody.
“As I have consistently maintained, the wheel of justice may grind slowly, but it will grind exceedingly fine in no distant time.”
