Human rights lawyer, Barrister Christopher Chidera, has called for the immediate release of the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, saying his conviction is invalid and cannot stand in law.
Speaking with journalists in Abuja on Tuesday, Chidera said the court had no jurisdiction to try or convict Kanu, insisting that the judgment delivered against him “cannot survive constitutional scrutiny.”
He argued that Kanu’s extraordinary rendition from Kenya, which the Supreme Court had earlier declared unlawful, stripped the trial court of the power to proceed with the case.
“The Constitution is the supreme law,” he said. “Nigeria cannot claim to be a constitutional democracy while attempting to convict a citizen who was illegally renditioned and then prosecuted under laws that do not exist.”
The lawyer said no valid trial could take place after Kanu was abducted across international borders, stressing that jurisdiction is “the lifeblood of adjudication.”
“You cannot abduct a man across international borders and then hope to conduct a valid trial. Once jurisdiction is poisoned at the root, everything else dies with it,” he said.
Chidera also faulted the charges against Kanu, saying they were based on repealed and non-existent laws. He said Counts 1 to 6 were tied to the Terrorism Prevention (Amendment) Act 2013, a law he noted had been repealed and was no longer part of Nigeria’s criminal statutes.
He added that Count 7 relied on a “Criminal Code Act Cap C45” which, according to him, does not exist in any current Nigerian law book. He pointed out that the Supreme Court had earlier declared the count defective and ordered it corrected, but said the prosecution and the court failed to comply.
“A court cannot prosecute a non-existent offence,” he said. “A judge cannot create jurisdiction where it does not exist.”
Chidera also accused the court of ignoring the repeal of the terrorism law, which he said it was required to take judicial notice of under Section 122 of the Evidence Act. He added that the attempt to later tie Count 7 to the Customs and Excise Management Act (CEMA) was also invalid because the limitation period had expired.
He said the court lacked jurisdiction in four major ways: Kanu’s unlawful rendition, reliance on a repealed law, reliance on a non-existent statute, and failure to obey a Supreme Court directive.
“In law, when jurisdiction collapses, everything collapses with it,” he said. “Nothing stands — not the arraignment, not the evidence, not the conviction.”
Chidera insisted that Kanu should be released without further delay, saying convicting a citizen under such conditions amounts to a serious miscarriage of justice.
“Nigeria is better than this,” he said. “Our Constitution demands better, and history will remember who stood for the law and who stood against it.”
