The indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) on Tuesday insisted that the Court of Appeal handling the case of its embattled leader, Nnamdi Kanu should deliver its judgment despite the alleged disappearance of his case file. The group had earlier raised alarm over the disappearance of the case file, describing the situation as a huge joke.
They said the development had further exposed the rot in the judicial system in the country and called on the Chief Justice of the Federation to urgently wade into the matter to protect the integrity of the justice system. The group made this known in a statement issued by the Head of Directorate of Services, Mazi Chika Edozien.
“This very matter, Appeal Case No CA/A/78A/C/2018, which is a legal action against the decision of Justice John Tsoho to reverse himself on an earlier ruling he made rejecting masked witnesses when he was the presiding judge before the matter was transferred to Justice Binta Nyako, is over a year old contrary to the law.
February 13, 2018 was the day Appeal Court of Nigeria agreed, after much protestation from IPOB lawyers and in direct contravention of a key constitutional provision, to deliver its long overdue judgment in the matter of Nnamdi Kanu vs Justice John Tsoho. On getting to court, instead of the usual adjournment that characterizes IPOB cases in Nigeria and ECOWAS courts, the panel of judges announced, to the dismay of the court and others assembled, that the file was not before them.
Not minding that this was a high profile matter already outside the constitutionally guaranteed three months maximum for delivery of judgment, the lead judge announced that the matter could not proceed, without the case file. The questions we are asking are; what happened to the decision of the initial panel that heard the case on the 8th March 2017 considering that Appeal Court of Nigeria is a supposedly competent court of records? Where is the copy of their judgment, because judges must have a copy of their judgment in their own personal files?
Assuming and for the purposes of benefit of doubt that Kanu’s file is missing, how about the judgment written by the panel of judges that heard the matter on the 8th of March 2017, which they were meant to deliver on the 8th of June 2017 at the very latest as guaranteed by law?Does it mean Nigerian courts do not keep records of their judgments or are we to assume that Appeal Court judges are ignorant of the Nigerian Constitution to the extent that they are unaware that the statutory limit on delivery of all Appeal Court judgments is 90 days?
Why wasn’t judgment in this matter delivered within the constitutionally guaranteed 90 days, which is 8 June 2017? What this case is telling the world is that Nigerian Appeal Court judges do not obey the constitution of Nigeria they are supposed to interpret and uphold. We view this ugly development as a desperate conspiratorial move to deny long overdue justice for Mazi Nnamdi Kanu and IPOB by Nigerian judicial officers on the orders of the Nigerian presidency.
Our humble request to the President of the Nigerian Judicial Council, NJC, President of the Appeal Court of Nigeria and Attorney General of the Federation, AGF is to recall the original panel of judges that heard the matter on the 8th of March 2017 to deliver their judgment as required by the Nigerian Constitution.”
