By Sunday Ani
Following the continued detention of the Leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, despite court judgments in favour of his unconditional release, Rights Advocate, Mikar Ojokoro, has tasked the conscience of the Supreme Court justices for keeping sealed lips in the face of brazen lawlessness and illegality on the part of the Federal Government of Nigeria.
Recall that several judicial authorities, local and international, including the Court of Appeal, as well as the UN Group on arbitrary detention, have all, at one time or the other, ordered for the unconditional release of the IPOB leader, but the Federal Government has been so adamant about that.
In what the human rights community has described as flagrant disregard and disobedience to the rule of law and court orders, the Federal Government has continued to hold Kanu, who according to his lawyers, is now very sick and physically frail because of the torture he is being subjected to in the unlawful detention.
Ojokoro is calling out and questioning each of the Supreme Court justices on how they feel seeing a fellow citizen kept in an unlawful and illegal detention and under severe torture after both the High Court and the Appeal Court of the land have respectively discharged and acquitted such a person. “How do you feel that an innocent man was kidnapped in a foreign land by the government,  brought back to Nigeria, and locked up in detention for over one year? In the last 19 months, Kanu has remained in the Department of State Service (DSS) dungeon, where he being tortured, in spite of several judicial pronouncements that he should be released unconditionally.
“However, the government in a flagrant disregard and disobedience to the rule of law and court orders, has continued to hold and torture him. Currently, he is very sick and physically frail because of the torture he is being subjected to in the illegal, unconstitutional and unlawful detention and he has also been denied access to specialist medical attention,” he said.
The IPOB Leader, according to Ojokoro, was not fighting for himself; he was fighting for the common good of all, as well as for the freedom of over 75 million Biafrans. “Kanu has committed no crime known in law. The case about his human right at the Supreme Court is more than his personal human rights; it is also about the human rights of millions of those he represents,” he noted.
Ojokoro lamented that the Supreme Court Justices could quickly hear election and other political matters in Nigeria, but kept blind eye to the matter regarding Kanu’s release as ordered by the Appeal Court, which has been with the Supreme Court for over 100 days. “Justice delayed, in this context, has been clearly demonstrated as justice denied in its crudest manner. The Biafrans, and in particular, the Igbo are worried, and wondering if the Supreme Court justices have come again to collude with the government. I urge the Supreme Court justices to remember that they all are sons, brothers, husbands uncles, fathers, leaders, and loved ones to some other persons.
“Beyond Kanu’s immediate young family, comprising two children and a wife, he is all of those to the Igbo race, and Biafra as a whole. How do the Supreme Court justices and their loved ones feel when they are mistreated the way and manner Kanu is being tortured by the government? Remember you all have children and relatives too. I leave this to your conscience,” he stated.
Ojokoro is specifically pricking the consciences of Olukayode Ariwoola, Musa Datijo Muhammad, Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, Chima Centus Nweze, Amina Augie, Uwani Musa Abba Aji, John Inyang Okoro, and Lawal Garba, to rise up to their mandate and ensure that the judiciary which is allegedly acclaimed to be the last hope of common man does not continue to be an object of local and international ridicule.