•Accuses Abubakar Malami of acting the script of Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders

A civil rights Advocacy Group, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), has asked President Muhammadu Buhari to stop playing the toxic Northern ethnic card and obey the Court of Appeal verdict quashing all charges instituted against the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.

The rights group also reminded the President that it would amount to kidnapping and an active hostage-taking should the IPOB leader not be released with immediate effect.

Besides, HURIWA carpeted the National Security Council which stated that Nnamdi Kanu would be kept in solitary confinement in clear violation of the binding judgement of the appellate court, even as the rights group said the Security Council constituted since 2015 by President Muhammadu Buhari dominated by persons from the Muslim North couldn't be validly called a National Security Council but rather be appropriately termed as the Northern Security Council because it lacks National spread, disregards the Federal Character Principle of the Constitution enshrined in section 14(3) and couldn't be called a national body without the representation of the South East at the commanding height of one of the arms of the armed forces of the federation.

“HURIWA is miffed that a lawyer who is the Attorney-General of the Federation and a Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, is openly advocating gross disobedience of a binding and an unambiguous judgment of a competent court of law in clear breach of the powers conferred on the courts of competent jurisdiction in Section 6 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as the body to exercise judicial authority over all of Nigeria,” said Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, National Coordinator of HURIWA.

“We have watched with utter shock and trepidation for the future of constitutionalism as the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice is seen and heard canvassing that President Muhammadu Buhari should violate and disobey a binding judgment completely annulling all charges filed against the long detained leader of the proscribed IPOB, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, and we are disappointed at the disdain displayed by this political appointee of President Buhari who has acted as if he is in office to serve only the interest of the Fulani herdsmen because the President is Fulani by Ethnicity.”

HURIWA added: “The position of the Federal Attorney-General on the Court of Appeal’s considered judgment on Nnamdi Kanu is pedestrian, puerile, and laughable just HURIWA has stated that any further detention of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu would amount to active hostage taking and an outright criminal case of kidnapping which is actionable. We wonder why a lawyer of Malami’s standing, adorning the title of a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, is now speaking like a 100-level law student of one road-side law faculty in a corner of Nigeria.

“This holder of the High office of the AGF must take note that history won’t be kind to him for constantly being seen arguing against the principles of the Rule of Law when he ought to speak and act as the unbiased Chief Law Officer of the federation and not of Miyetti Allah Cattle Owners Association.”

HURIWA recalled that a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Mike Ozekhome, has said rightly that the leader of IPOB, Nnamdi Kanu, should be released immediately after his discharge by the Court of Appeal in Abuja, on Thursday. Ozekhome, who is also a Senior Counsel to Kanu, said the separatist group’s leader is now a free man, while speaking on Channels Television’s “News At 10”, on Thursday.

HURIWA recalled that a three-member panel of the appellate court, led by Hanatu Sankey, held that the federal government contravened the Terrorism Act, Extradition Act and also breached international conventions and treaties guiding extraditions, thus, violating the rights of Kanu.

HURIWA said it was tragic that reacting to the verdict, the Attorney-General of the Federation said the case was not over for Kanu, adding that the court did not acquit him and averred wrongly thus: “For the avoidance of doubt and by the verdict of the Court, Kanu was only discharged and not acquitted.”

HURIWA recalled that in a counter-reaction to Malami’s submission, Ozekhome said the Department of State Services (DSS) should let Kanu go home immediately after his lawyers presented a certified true copy of the judgment. Ozekhome said: “What it (the ruling) means is that Nnamdi Kanu was discharged today. That means he is a free man.

“And he should be allowed to go home tomorrow by the time we get a certified true copy of the judgment, we serve it to the Office of the Attorney-General and the DSS to allow Nnamdi Kanu go. Let my people go.”

HURIWA strongly opposed the unlawful, pedestrian and childish position of the so-called National Security Council, which on Friday, said it was backing the position of the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, over the Appeal Court judgment on Kanu, that debunked his complete acquittal.

Onwubiko, the National Coordinator of HURIWA, expressed anger that President Buhari was acting like a Patron of the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association by failing to comply with the court’s verdict.

He further said the continuous illegal detention of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu amounted to kidnapping of a citizen. He therefore asked the Prime Minister of United Kingdom, Ms. Liz Truss, to intervene to ensure that the British citizen Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, was not unduly detained illegally but freed in line with the decision of the Appeal Court of Nigeria.

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