By Christopher Chidera, Esq
On October 13, 2022, Onyendu Mazi Nnamdi Kanu was a free man. The Court of Appeal had unanimously discharged him, declaring his extraordinary rendition from Kenya illegal and stripping the Federal High Court of jurisdiction . The charges were quashed. The case was over. Freedom was minutes away.
Then came the betrayal—not from the government, which was expected to act lawlessly, but from the very lawyers paid to protect his liberty Ifeanyi Ejiofor especially.
The Moment of Reckoning:
When the Federal Government filed its irregular “civil stay of execution” application—a legal monstrosity unknown to Nigerian criminal jurisprudence—the defence team had one job: file a simple Preliminary Objection challenging the jurisdiction of the court to entertain it .
They had the ammunition. A stay of execution is a civil remedy for money judgments—not a mechanism to suspend a criminal discharge . The Court of Appeal had already become functus officio, having fully determined the criminal appeal . The Federal Government was in contempt of an extant court order refusing to release Kanu. The law was clear.
Yet, Ifeanyi Ejiofor and Mike Ozekhome, SAN, failed to act .
The Consequences of Incompetence:
Instead of filing that jurisdictional challenge, what did they do? They responded to AGF Malami’s theatrics, filing counter-affidavits and debating the merits of the stay rather than striking at the heart: the court’s jurisdiction to even hear it .
The result was catastrophic. The stay was granted . A new panel of the Court of Appeal—an entirely different panel—used civil procedure rules to nullify a criminal discharge . Kanu remained in DSS custody for 14 months without fresh charges .
That unchallenged stay paved the way for the Supreme Court to reverse the discharge on December 15, 2023 . Kanu was later convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment on charges that had been quashed by a superior court .
The Cover-Up Continues
When Kanu’s family demanded accountability, Ejiofor did not accept responsibility. Instead, he launched a smear campaign against Kanu’s brothers, poisoned relationships, and fed falsehoods to Kanu’s wife . He continues to attack his former client publicly while concealing his fundamental procedural failure .
Today, Ejiofor and his team “mastered camera angles” while Kanu rots in detention, convicted on charges that should never have been revived . He offered ₦1 million to any law student who could show a precedent for staying a criminal discharge. He should have demanded a refund from his lawyers.
The rule of law demands transparency. The Kanu family, the legal profession, and the Nigerian public deserve answers . This was not a loss to a superior legal argument. It was professional negligence that cost a man his freedom.
This is the real issue and nothing else.
Christopher Chidera Esq.
The Biafran Vanguard
(The Voice of the People of Biafra)
