The Nigerian judiciary has been described as a captive of the executive arm of government and therefore has lost her voice as the last hope of the common man. The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) made the allegation while reacting to the decision of the Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja to grant the prayers of President Muhammadu Buhari on the judgement made by the appellate court quashing all charges filed against the detained leader of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, which government disobeyed before deciding to appeal.

HURIWA said that “by their cowardice manifested in the granting of the stay of execution to a disobedient Appellant, the Court of Appeal has justified the resort to self help measures by disenchanted citizens since it is no longer possible for justice to be obtained in the court of law and complied with by the government and then the same court will certify the gross indiscipline and treachery of the central Government in flouting the unambiguous orders of the court made in compliance with section 6 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal republic of Nigeria.”

HURIWA in a statement issued in Abuja on Friday condemned “the capitulation to the whims and caprices of the dictatorial President of Nigeria by the Court of Appeal.” It wondered why “the court did not insist that the Federal Government first obeys the judgment before appealing since it is a matter that touches on the criminal breach of the constitutionally guaranteed fundamental freedoms of Citizen Nnamdi Kanu who has remained in solitary confinement at the dungeons of the Department of State Services for nearly two years and has reportedly contracted a life threatening ailment whilst in detention.”

HURIWA said there is “absolutely no reason why the court couldn’t have compelled government to comply by her decision rather than been blackmailed into shooting themselves on the leg and thereby amputating justice since the res in the Appeal against the judgment of the Appellate Court won’t be dissipated if Nmamdi Kanu is left to enjoy his freedoms whilst the Supreme Court hears the Federal Government Appeal.”

“Today is indeed a calamitous day for the Nigerian judiciary whereby the wheel of justice was derailed by political correctness and fear of the unknown,” the rights group said in the statement signed by its National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko.

Part of the statement reads: “HURIWA is appalled that the hierarchy of the Court of Appeal was so provoked by the decision of the three member panel of Justices to quash the charges against Nnamdi Kanu that it reportedly made punitive transfer affecting a member of that panel even before the belated application for stay of execution was filed just as the Rights group questioned the moral high ground of the Federal Government to rush to the Appeal Court after the Federal Attorney General and minister of justice Abubakar Malami has used media platforms to impugn and discredit the panelists who freed Nnamdi Kanu and maintained publicly that the President won't release Nnamdi Kanu even when the Court of Appeal had expressly ordered that all charges pending against the detained self determination campaigner Nnamdi Kanu were comprehensively annulled.”

HURIWA lamented however that “despite the publicised notice of intent by the Federal Government not to ever respect the judgment of the Court of Appeal the same court of Appeal certified the illegality and the act of impunity and treachery of the Federal Government when the Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja, on Friday, suspended the execution of its judgement that ordered the Federal Government to release the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Nnamdi Kanu, from detention.”

The rights group recalled that the appellate court, in a unanimous decision by a three-man panel led by Justice Haruna Tsanami, granted the application FG brought for stay of execution of the judgement pending the hearing and determination of the appeal it lodged before the Supreme Court. However, the appellate court, ordered FG to within seven days, transmit the record of appeal as well as its verdict on the matter, to the apex court to enable speedy determination of the case.

HURIWA recalled that appellate court had last Monday, reserved its ruling on the application FG filed for the judgement that quashed the entire 15-count terrorism charge it preferred against Kanu not to be executed, pending the determination of an appeal it has lodged before the Supreme Court.

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