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A lawyer and member of the Mazi Nnamdi Kanu Defence Consortium, Barrister Christopher Chidera, has accused the President Bola Tinubu-led Nigerian government of committing grave illegalities by prosecuting and convicting the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) under a law that had already been repealed by the National Assembly.
Chidera also faulted the National Judicial Council (NJC) and the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), alleging that Nigeria’s leading legal institutions were hoping that “noisy propaganda” would obscure what he described as the unlawful conviction and continued detention of Kanu.
The lawyer made the claims in a statement issued on Monday, where he criticised the silence of the NJC, the NBA and some prominent Nigerians in the face of what he insisted was a clear abuse of the law.
According to Chidera, Kanu ought not to have been prosecuted, let alone convicted, under the Terrorism Prevention (Amendment) Act, 2013 (TPAA), which he said had been scrapped and replaced by a new terrorism law enacted in 2022.
“The case of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu is not as complicated as the government of Nigeria and Britain would like the world to believe,” Chidera said.
“The National Assembly of Nigeria killed the old terrorism law Terrorism Prevention Amendment Act, 2013 (TPAA) under which Nnamdi Kanu was charged and convicted. The trial judge pretended it was still alive even though he knows it’s dead.
“That is illegal because Nigerian law, s.122 (2)(a) Evidence Act, says a judge that pretends a dead law is still alive is doing so illegally, he is breaking the law.
“NBA, NJC and a few reasonable people know the truth but they are hoping the noisy propaganda surrounding Kanu’s conviction will bury it.”
Chidera stressed that a repealed law cannot be used to convict any individual, insisting that the Terrorism Prevention (Amendment) Act, 2013, had ceased to exist in law.
“In 2022, Nigeria passed a new terrorism law. At the same time, National Assembly in Abuja scrapped the old terrorism laws from 2011 and 2013,” he said.
“Scrapped means dead. Dead laws cannot jail people. This is important to note because the Constitution of Nigeria says so.
“NBA knows this, NJC knows, judges know, lawyers know this basic law. Why are they silent?”
He further argued that even the trial judge acknowledged that the 2013 law had been repealed but still failed to apply the new legislation to Kanu’s case.
“Any old cases must move forward under the new law. This means that Kanu should be tried under the current written law, TPPA. Not under the repealed TPAA,” Chidera stated.
“Nothing already done before repeal is erased. But new decisions must follow the new law. The trial judge said he was ensuring a ‘smooth transition’ from the old law (TPAA) to the new law (TPPA).
“He never transitioned anywhere. He never tried Nnamdi Kanu under the new law TPPA as the law commanded.
“Charges should have been under the 2022 law. The trial should have followed the 2022 rules. The punishment should come from the 2022 law. None of this happened.
“He convicted and sentenced Kanu using the dead 2013 law. He ignored the new law completely. This is deliberate bending of the law to get a conviction. A judge cannot jail a man using a law Parliament has buried.”
Chidera warned that allowing such a judgment to stand poses a serious threat to the rule of law and the safety of all Nigerians.
“Any judge can resurrect any old law. Parliament becomes useless. The Constitution becomes decoration. Today it is Kanu. Tomorrow it can be anyone.
“This is about law versus lawlessness. A court that convicts under a dead law is not doing justice. It is doing fraud in a robe. If Nigerians accept this, then nobody is safe,” he warned.
