Aloy Ejimakor, special counsel for detained leader of the
proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu, says it is unfair that the
Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami (SAN), hastily extradited
the IPOB leader from Kenya to Nigeria yet the Minister of Justice says the
arrest warrant issued against a Deputy Commissioner of Police, Abba Kyari, by
the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the United States will follow due
process.
Ejimakor, who stated this in a chat with The PUNCH, stressed
that the painstaking process the US has followed in the request for Kyari was
what Malami and the Federal Government of Nigeria should have followed in the
extradition of his client.
The IPOB leader’s lawyer was reacting to a statement by Malami’s
Special Assistant on Media and Public Relations, Umar Gwandu, who said though
the FBI was yet to officially write the AGF Office seeking the transfer of
Kyari but everything would be done in line with the rule of law.
Kyari, the suspended former Head of the police Intelligence
Response Team, is under investigation for alleged involvement in a $1.1m
Internet fraud allegedly perpetrated by Abbas Ramon, popularly known as
Hushpuppi, and four others.
The FBI had claimed that Kyari detained one Kelly Chibuzor
at the behest of Hushpuppi for one month to enable the latter and his
co-conspirators fleece their Qatari victim of over $1m.
The Inspector-General of Police, Usman Baba, subsequently
confirmed the receipt of FBI’s allegations against Kyari and set up a panel to
probe the cop.
But Malami’s aide had said the AGF Office was yet to receive
any communication from the FBI or the Nigeria Police Force regarding the arrest
warrant issued against Kyari. The AGF Office is responsible for matters
regarding extradition, repatriation and transfer of suspects or wanted persons.
“There is no official communication to that effect,” Gwandu
had told The PUNCH. He, however, said that “everything will be done according
to the rule of law and based on the dictates of the extant provisions of the
law”.
Reacting, Kanu’s lawyer said the FBI taught Nigeria a lesson
in justice system by not going through back channels to arrange the “abduction”
of the police officer.
Ejimakor said, “I do not want to compare apples with oranges
but what I can say is the difficulty through which the US is seeking for the
transfer of Abba Kyari to the US is illustrative of what Nigeria should have
done in the case of Nnamdi Kanu. Kanu probably would have been transferred by
Kenya if extradition proceedings were commenced against him.
“What America is accusing Abba Kyari to have committed is
clearly extraditable under the Nigerian laws and the law of the United States
because the offences relate to money laundering, bribery, corruption and all
that.
“I am not arranging judgment over Abba Kyari whether he committed
it or not but the lesson everybody needs to learn, whether anybody is playing
the tribal card or not, is: why would somebody believes that Abba Kyari
deserves due process and the same person turns around and jubilate after the
unlawful transfer otherwise known as extraordinary rendition of Mazi Nnamdi
Kanu and also seeks to jubilate over the attempted unlawful transfer of
(Sunday) Igboho from Benin Republic?
“This type of thing goes to indicate the deep fault lines in
Nigeria. Somebody from a part of the country thinks it is okay to grab someone
from another country without due process and bring him to Nigeria to answer
offences of political character but it is okay for another country to submit
itself to seeking due process in the transfer of a citizen of Nigeria to the
United States. It is a very deep contradiction.”
Recall that Malami at a press briefing in Abuja on June 29,
2021 had announced that the IPOB leader was arrested in a foreign country and
extradited to Nigeria.
Kanu, who was born on September 25, 1967, is a holder of
Nigerian and British passports. He had earlier jumped bail in June 2018 before
leaving for the United Kingdom though he said that he fled because his life was
no longer safe in Nigeria.
Upon his re-arrest and extradition in June 2021, he was
re-arraigned before Justice Binta Nyako for terrorism-related charges and has
since been remanded in the custody of the Department of State Services in
Abuja.
Kanu’s trial has been adjourned till October 21, 2021.
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