A civil rights advocacy group, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), on Thursday, criticised the Supreme Court over the adjournment of the hearing of a case involving the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.

HURIWA also said the federal government’s fresh nine grounds of appeal against Kanu was incredibly criminal. Besides, the group accused President Muhammadu Buhari of creating the spectacular security crises in Igboland by his arbitrary execution of draconian military actions against perceived members of the proscribed IPOB, insisting that such military actions, since Nnamdi Kanu was first arrested, undermined peace, economic growth and created monumental security nightmares in all the Igbo States in what appears like a deliberate economic genocide by the President against Ndigbo. HURIWA asked President Buhari to release the IPOB leader "immediately and unconditionally" in compliance with an extant judgment of the Court of Appeal which freed Kanu.

HURIWA, in a statement by its National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, said the constant adjournment of Kanu's case by the courts since mid-2021 was a tactic by the regime of Buhari to perpetually deny Kanu of his fundamental right to freedom.

At the resumed hearing of Kanu's case on Thursday, his Counsel, Mike Ozekhome, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), informed the court of his motions seeking bail for his client; and another seeking for his transfer to the Kuje Correctional Facility to get proper medical attention as his client's health was failing in the custody of the DSS.

The court subsequently fixed May 11, for a hearing on the pending motion and the main appeal.

The statement by HURIWA read in part: “We condemn the Supreme Court for extending the illegal detention of a citizen but political cases are decided rapidly. The Supreme Court must be the bastion of human rights protection.

“Also, the fresh nine charges brought against Kanu by the government is an afterthought to keep denying him his fundamental rights.

“We unequivocally demand Kanu’s unconditional and immediate release from illegal incarceration. Kanu's now is ‘hostage taking’ by the federal government which failed to obey Appeal Court judgment freeing him, whilst influencing the Supreme Court to defer hearing in the government's appeal against Kanu’s release ad-infinitum. Generations unborn will remember Malami and justices of Supreme Court of today as Saboteurs of democracy, Rule of Law and Human Rights.

“We Call for UN Human Rights Council's visit to DSS facilities to ascertain the conditions of Nnamdi Kanu.”

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