By CHARLES IWUOHA

A lawyer and member of the Mazi Nnamdi Kanu Defence Consortium, Barrister Christopher Chidera, has alleged that the National Judicial Council (NJC) and the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, are hoping that propaganda would bury the “illegalities” in Kanu’s conviction.

Chidera, who made the assertion in a statement on Monday, faulted the silence of Nigeria’s foremost legal institutions and some prominent Nigerians on what he described as the unlawful conviction and imprisonment of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) leader.

According to the lawyer, Kanu should not have been prosecuted, not to talk of being convicted, under the Terrorism Prevention Amendment Act 2013 (TPAA), which has been repealed by the National Assembly.

He said: "The case of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu is not as complicated as the government of Nigeria and Britain would like the world to believe.

“The National Assembly of Nigeria killed the old terrorism law Terrorism Prevention Amendment Act 2013 (TPAA) under which Nnamdi Kanu was charged and convicted. The trial judge pretended it was still alive even though he knows it’s dead.

“That is illegal because Nigerian law, s.122 (2)(a) Evidence Act, says a judge that pretends a dead law is still alive is doing so illegally, he is breaking the law.

“NBA, NJC and a few reasonable people know the truth but they are hoping the noisy propaganda surrounding Kanu’s conviction will bury it.”

Stressing that the Terrorism Prevention Amendment Act 2013, TPAA, cannot be used to convict anybody, Chidera said: “In 2022, Nigeria passed a new terrorism law. At the same time, National Assembly in Abuja scrapped the old terrorism laws from 2011 and 2013.

“Scrapped means dead. Dead laws cannot jail people. This is important to note because the Constitution of Nigeria says so.

“NBA knows this, NJC knows, judges know, lawyers know this basic law. Why are they silent?”

Noting that the trial judge also acknowledged the repeal of the Terrorism Prevention Amendment Act 2013, TPAA, the lawyer added: “Any old cases must move forward under the new law. This means that Kanu should be tried under the current written law which is TPPA. Not under the repealed TPAA.

“Nothing already done before repeal is erased. But new decisions must follow the new law. The trial judge said he was ensuring a “smooth transition” from the old law (TPAA) to the new law (TPPA).

“Because he never transitioned anywhere. He never tried Nnamdi Kanu under the new law TPPA as the law commanded.

“Charges should have been under the 2022 law. The trial should have followed the 2022 rules. The punishment should come from the 2022 law. None of this happened.

“He convicted Kanu using the dead 2013 law. He sentenced Kanu using the dead 2013 law. He ignored the new law completely. This is deliberate bending of the law to get a conviction. A judge cannot jail a man using a law Parliament has buried.”

Chidera warned that if the judgment is allowed to stand, Nigerians are no longer safe.

“Any judge can resurrect any old law. Parliament becomes useless. The Constitution becomes decoration. Today it is Kanu. Tomorrow it can be anyone.

“This is about law versus lawlessness. A court that convicts under a dead law

Is not doing justice. It is doing fraud in a robe. If Nigerians accept this, then nobody is safe,” he added.

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