Nnamdi Kanu’s defence team has blamed his travails on the failure of his former counsel, Mike Ozekhome, SAN, and Ifeanyi Ejiofor, to file a preliminary objection challenging the Nigerian government’s motion for a stay of execution of the October 13, 2022, Court of Appeal judgment that freed the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) leader.
The defence team made the assertion in a statement issued by Christopher Chidera, Esq., on Saturday.
It will be recalled that Kanu recently announced that Ejiofor no longer represents him and IPOB as legal counsel.
Ozekhome and Ejiofor were Kanu’s defence counsel in his terrorism trial before he decided to represent himself in court.
Shedding light on what transpired, Chidera, on behalf of the defence team, said Kanu was a free man after the Court of Appeal discharged and acquitted him, having declared his rendition from Kenya illegal.
The lawyer said: “On October 13, 2022, Onyendu Mazi Nnamdi Kanu was a free man. The Court of Appeal had unanimously discharged him, declaring his extraordinary rendition from Kenya illegal and stripping the Federal High Court of jurisdiction. The charges were quashed. The case was over. Freedom was minutes away.
“Then came the betrayal—not from the government, which was expected to act lawlessly, but from the very lawyers paid to protect his liberty, Ifeanyi Ejiofor especially.
“When the Federal Government filed its irregular ‘civil stay of execution’ application, the defence team had one job: file a simple preliminary objection challenging the jurisdiction of the court to entertain it.
