The defence team of the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Nnamdi Kanu, has called on his former lawyers, Chief Mike Ozekhome, SAN, and Ifeanyi Ejiofor, to explain why they allegedly failed to challenge what it described as fundamental irregularities in the charge sheet used to prosecute the separatist leader.
The demand was made in a statement issued on Sunday by a member of the legal team, Christopher Chidera Esq.
The lawyers described the charge sheet as a “legal corpse”, insisting that Kanu’s trial and conviction were founded on a law that had already been repealed.
According to the statement, the Supreme Court has consistently held that a valid charge sheet is the foundation of criminal jurisdiction, stressing that without a competent charge, there can be no valid trial or conviction.
The defence team argued that despite the apex court’s position, Kanu’s former lawyers failed to compel the trial court to address what it called glaring defects in the charge sheet.
“These are binding pronouncements from the highest court in the land. Yet the previous legal team, Ifeanyi Ejiofor and Mike Ozekhome, SAN, never forced the trial court to confront the plain face of the charge sheet.
“On 13 October 2022, the Court of Appeal delivered a unanimous judgment that should have ended the matter forever. The charges were quashed. The trial court was stripped of jurisdiction. The case was over,” the statement read.
The legal team further maintained that the Terrorism Prevention (Amendment) Act, 2013, under which Counts 1 to 6 of the charge were filed, was repealed by the Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022.
It also cited Section 36(12) of the Constitution, which provides that no person shall be convicted of a criminal offence unless the offence and its punishment are prescribed by an existing written law.
According to the statement, Kanu personally raised the issue while conducting his own defence before Justice James Omotosho, arguing that the offences contained in the charge sheet no longer existed under any current Nigerian statute.
The defence team further alleged that Kanu’s former lawyers failed to challenge other defects in the prosecution’s case, including the alleged failure to specify where the broadcasts forming part of the charges were made and the prosecution’s failure to amend defective counts as directed by the Supreme Court.
“Yet Ejiofor and Ozekhome never pressed these issues with the vigour required. They never held the trial court to the Supreme Court’s own guidelines. They never insisted on the plain face of the charge sheet.
“One failure allowed an extinguished criminal process to be kept artificially alive through a civil stay. Another failure allowed a trial to proceed on a charge sheet that contained no living law. These are not minor lapses. They are successive jurisdictional collapses that a diligent defence was obligated to prevent.
“A man who had been discharged by a superior court remained in custody, was later tried on a dead charge sheet, and was convicted. That sequence did not begin with the government alone. It was enabled by the failure of those paid to protect his liberty.
“The Kanu family, the legal profession, and the Nigerian public deserve answers. Ifeanyi Ejiofor and Mike Ozekhome, SAN, must explain why they failed to act when the law was clear, the client had warned them, and freedom hung in the balance,” the statement added.
