The Federal Government of Nigeria has maintained that it applied due process in the extradition of the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu contrary to wide insinuations.
The Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, SAN who made the clarification in Abuja disclosed that a bench warrant against Kanu was judiciously procured by the federal from the court where he jumped bail.
Malami who was responding to views attributed to one Kelechi Madu from the Canadian ministry of justice which he described as outrageously ignoramus opinions that are eccentric and weird to the legal profession.
This was contained in a statement by the Special Assistant to the AGF on Media and Public Relations, Dr. Umar Gwandu.
According to the statement, ‘it is unfortunate for someone who claims to be a lawyer of a status of a Solicitor General of a provincial State of Alberta in Canada to fault the internationally recognized manner through which Nnamdi Kanu who jumped bail was re-arrested and brought back to face trial.
‘It was abundantly clear that bench warrant was lawfully and judiciously procured through judicial process by a competent court of law, whose bail condition Nnamdi Kanu breached with impunity. There was no illegality in the entire process and the question of illegality does not even arise.
‘It is a common principle of the law that he who comes to equity must come with clean hands.
‘The self-acclaimed leader of the proscribed group of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has enjoyed representation by counsel of his choice all through the judicial process and was never denied a right of choice of counsel or recourse to one, even when he symbolizes a proscribed association (IPOB) in law, and in fact his association has been legally proscribed.
‘Where was the so-called Madu when Nnamdi Kanu was inciting violence against the country? Why, as a lawyer, would Madu support a fugitive who jumped bail and accused of terrorism and treasonable felony? What stopped Madu from voicing out dissent on the atrocities of Kanu and their group?
‘It is important to educate the likes of Keleche Madu that both Nigeria (his country of birth) and Canada (where he claims to be practicing law) are signatories to the Multinational Treaty Agreement where, among others, fugitive fleeing justice in nations with similar agreement could be brought back to face justice’ the statement read in part.
He went on to conclude by submitting that ‘as the saying goes ‘an empty vessel makes loudest noise’. We advise the so-called ‘learned man’ to shelve his arrogance and learn to study the law books before opening his mouth to disgrace himself before the right-thinking members of the society thereby attracting to himself criticism that may propel doubt about his suitability for the job he claims to be doing now, after moving out of his country of origin in which he fails to excel’.
AFRICA TODAY NEWS, NEW YORK