Following the court drama that played out on Monday February 10, 2025 in the ongoing trial of the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, the Youth Wing of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide has demanded for his immediate release.
Kanu had brushed aside his team of lawyers when he took the centre stage inside the court and lambasted Nigeria’s judicial system for deliberate misinterpretation of the law just to sustain his continuous detention.
After the verbal exchanges with Kanu, who insisted that Justice Nyako would never sit on his trial again having earlier recused herself, the trial judge adjourned the case indefinitely thereby prolonging Kanu’s detention.
In a statement signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Mazi Chika Art Adiele, the Ohanaeze Youth Wing said that Kanu’s trial has turned to a “charade” in the Federal High Court Abuja presided over by Justice Binta Nyako.
The youths stated that it has become obvious that Justice Nyako, from “all intent and purposes is bent on subjugating Mazi Nnamdi Kanu to perpetual trial without any form of justice”.
“It is an absurdity that the rule of law is punctured in a most brazen manner by this dishonorable Judge who obviously is playing a prepared script.
“As a people, we strongly feel that Justice Binta Nyako, by her actions and inactions, has deployed warped logic to obfuscate an irrefutable facts that Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, is a full blooded citizen of Nigeria and his right is inalienable,” the statement read.
The Ohanaeze youths vehemently condemned the unending trial of Kanu, saying “we cannot fathom why she(Justice Nyako) is deliberately persecuting Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, when the facts are before the law”.
According to the group, the trial judge was “deploying subterfuge, self hatred and destructive tendencies just to feed her ego”.
However, the Ohanaeze Youth Wing reminded Nyako that “justice delayed is justice denied” hence “we demand that Mazi Nnamdi Kanu is released without further delay and full compensation paid to him”.
The youth group said that anything short of unconditional release of the detained IPOB leader “will leave us in the belief that this is a collective trial of Ndigbo”.
While pointing out that Igbo Youths are peace loving, the Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide Youth Wing warned Justice Nyako against taking “our quest for the rule of law to prevail as a sign of weakness”.