lPOB demands state of emergency in Nigeria judicial system

By Cyprian Ebele, Onitsha

Dissatisfied with the Nigeria judicial system, indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Monday, demanded from the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Olukayode Ariwoola, to declare .a state of emergency in the judicial sector.

The spokesperson of the group, Emma Powerful, in a statement signed and issued to newsmen, said it felt compelled to bring to the attention of the Chief Judge to the ongoing alleged perversion of the course of justice, especially in the case of FGN versus Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, in Abuja court.

The statement reads in part: “We equally urge your immediate intervention to arrest this ongoing desecration of the rule of law being conducted in full view of the public and civilised world.

“It is shocking and beyond belief that a high court judge sitting in Abuja will state boldly in an open court of law and on record, that she would not obey or have regard for any determination made by the Supreme Court of Nigeria, in its (SC) judgement in respect of the matter remitted back to her court. Surely Chief Justice, this is an invitation to judicial anarchy and procedural lawlessness.

“It is very obvious, from the happenings in this case, that there exists a disconnect between what the law says should be done and what the trial judge, the AGF and others are doing. With the greatest respect Chief Justice, what obtains in the ongoing persecution of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu is neither law nor justice, but a travesty.

“How is it possible that some segments of the Judiciary will be prepared to destroy the basic foundations of criminal law procedure in Nigeria because of just one man Mazi Nnamdi Kanu? These core values have underpinned common law criminal jurisprudence since the reign of King Edward 1 of England around 1425, when its codifications began,” IPOB stated.

It lamented that just only three years, every fundamental and immutable right guaranteed an accused person undergoing trial in a common law jurisdiction, has been trampled upon, discarded and jettisoned just because Kanu is on trial in a Nigerian court.