Kanu’s counsel urges Tinubu to respect UN’s order to release IPOB leader

Aloy Ejimakor, the Special Counsel to detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, has called on President Bola Tinubu to respect an order issued by the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), in 2022 to unconditionally release the IPOB leader.

Ejimakor who made the call in a statement on Saturday, advised Tinubu not to follow in the footsteps of former President Muhammadu Buhari, who ignored the UN’s orders to release Kanu.

In the statement, Ejimakor noted that in July 2022, the UNHRC, through a landmark opinion issued by its Working Group, had directed Buhari’s administration to free Kanu, an order which the ex-President failed to obey.

The lawyer said the group had also asked that the ex-president should accord him a pathway to compensation for Kanu’s arrest and rendition from Kenya to Nigeria, which was also disregarded by Buhari which has seen Kanu languishing im detention since 2021.

Ejimakor insisted that the Federal Government under Tinubu is bound by the directives and orders from international laws and treaties because of the country’s membership.

In the statement titled ‘On Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, President Tinubu should not dishonor the United Nations as Buhari did,” Ejimakor said:

“In July 2022, the United Nations Human Rights Council (through a landmark Opinion issued by its Working Group) directed the Buhari-led Government of Nigeria to free Mazi Nnamdi Kanu and accord him a pathway to compensation for his infamous extraordinary rendition from Kenya to Nigeria in June 2021.

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“The 17-page Opinion, in its Disposition (or conclusion) states that: “The Working Group considers that, taking into account all the circumstances of the case, the appropriate remedy would be for the Government of Nigeria to release Mr. Kanu immediately and accord him an enforceable right to compensation
and other reparations, in accordance with international law.

“As a background, the Working Group of the United Nations Human Rights Council is a quasi-judicial body that has the legal mandate of the United Nations to receive and adjudicate human rights petitions against member nations of the UN. Accordingly, its Decisions (diplomatically called Opinions) are legally binding on all member nations of the United Nations, including Nigeria.

“In addition to Nigeria being a bonafide member of the United Nations, this very UN decision on Mazi Kanu is primarily predicated on the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, by which Nigeria is legally bound by virtue of its ratification by an Act of the National Assembly under Section 12 of the Nigerian Constitution.

“To be sure, ratification is a means by which a nation makes itself subject to international laws and treaties. And by the provisions of Section 12 of the Nigerian Constitution and a plethora of decisions by the Supreme Court of Nigeria and international tribunals with jurisdiction, ratification makes every ratifying nation (including Nigeria) subject to whatever it ratified. This is non-arguable and inviolable.

“It goes without saying therefore that, as a bonafide member of the United Nations and a treaty-bound nation, Nigeria is subject to decisions issuing from the United Nations. Thus, Nigeria is duty-bound to implement this decision in its black letters and spirit. And it was expected to do so promptly.

“The advance copy of the Opinion which was issued on 20th July, 2022 was released to me on 23rd July, 2022. The cover letter bearing the Opinion indicated that the Working Group forwarded the Opinion to the Government of Nigeria a day earlier on 22nd July, 2022; yet former President Buhari failed to comply until he left office.

‘Nonetheless, it is never too late to act, even as Mazi Nnamdi Kanu has, for three and half years, endured the horrendous rigors of a detention that is bereft of any legal justification.

“Therefore, unlike a misguided Buhari, a wiser President Tinubu can do the right thing by freeing Mazi Nnamdi Kanu without further ado. He does not need any court order to do so because the matter has transformed from the legal or judicial to the political. And as the saying goes, the buck stops at the President’s table.”

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