Sir Ifeanyi Ejiofor, a former counsel to the leader of the Independent People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, who was sentenced to life imprisonment for treasonable felony and terrorism charges by the Federal High Court in Abuja on Thursday, has highlighted the legal misrepresentation that culminated in his conviction.

In a statement titled ‘Nnamdi Kanu’s Avoidable Ordeal: How Amateur Legal Showmen Led a High Profile Case into a Judicial Ambush’, Barrister Ejiofor recalled that he was a member of the Kanu legal team for about eight years from 2015 until Prof. Mike Ozekhome, SAN, assumed leadership of the legal team in 2022.

He said: “During the period our team handled this matter from 2015 to December 2023, up until Prof. Mike Ozekhome, SAN, assumed leadership of the legal team in 2022, we were on the threshold of securing yet another major relief for Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, particularly after the Court of Appeal discharged and acquitted him in 2022.

“Sustained pressure, strategic diplomacy and airtight legal maneuvering had placed us on the verge of another monumental breakthrough.

“Regrettably, certain sensitive details of this progress were, perhaps innocently, disclosed by Mazi Nnamdi Kanu to some of these clueless clowns.

“Rather than support a strategy they barely understood, they seized the information as an opportunity to derail the entire process and treacherously orchestrated a change in the status quo.

“Consequently, we exited the team, gloriously, and with our integrity intact.”

Noting that a high-profile, internationally sensitive criminal trial is not a circus ring, Ejiofor noted that “once these bloated, delusional entertainers-in-wigs inserted themselves into the process, everything degenerated into a grotesque parody of legal representation.

“Instead of crafting legal strategy, they crafted Instagram stories. Instead of mastering case law, they mastered camera angles. At every court session, their priority wasn’t research or preparation, it was posing, filming, updating, grandstanding, and “going viral. Meanwhile, the accused man’s fate hung by a thread,” he said.

Ejiofor said the most tragic part of it all was that even after the court explicitly warned that self-representation in a complex constitutional and criminal matter was dangerous, “these ‘consultants’ encouraged it, clapping like paid spectators in a village arena.”

He lamented that the unthinkable happened in a trial that could have been paused or avoided if the proper methodology and engagement had been applied. Yet, he said, a conviction that could have been prevented and an outcome that was entirely avoidable was allowed to proceed “under the guidance of legal lightweights intoxicated by social-media relevance.

“They railroaded him, knowingly or unknowingly, into the savage pit of a full criminal trial, fully aware that other lawful avenues existed.

“Even while the trial was ongoing, they busied themselves with dishing out falsehoods, half-truths, and misleading “updates” to an unsuspecting public. Every lie told outside the courtroom became a landmine inside the courtroom.

“Every exaggerated “update” became a contradiction the prosecution gleefully documented. Every camera stunt became a professional embarrassment.

“And now, instead of remorse, they have resumed their post-trial routine: fresh videos, fresh lies, fresh false hopes, desperate for clicks.

“The tragedy continues because the vulnerable still believe them.”

The legal practitioner said the greatest puzzle of all was how foremost legal minds, globally respected Senior Advocates of Nigeria such as Chief Kanu Agabi, SAN; Chief Onyechi Ikpeazu, SAN; “and other erudite members of the Inner Bar; men fully versed in the anatomy of high-wire criminal litigation, became disengaged at the most critical moment of the trial, only for mediocre adventurers to hijack a matter of international significance and reduce it to a TikTok legal carnival.

“Who replaces world-class physicians with herbal storytellers during brain surgery? Who replaces strategic diplomacy with reckless grandstanding? Who replaces law with theatrics? Only a system already preparing for disaster,” he said.

On the way forward for the convicted IPOB leader, Ejiofor said for any meaningful rescue effort by globally respected legal experts, “the first task must be to clean up the monumental damage inflicted by these self-advertising jesters.”

“A comprehensive review of methodology, effective engagement, and drastically reduced publicity must precede any intervention.

“Only then can a coherent, sophisticated legal and political strategy be fashioned.

“This is not the time for comedy; not the time for inflated egos and certainly not the time for social media theatrics.

“It is time for soberness, time for competence, time for real advocacy. #EnoughIsEnough,” he said.

Kanu’s wife slams lawyers for not briefing her on transfer to Sokoto

Uchechi Okwu-Kanu, wife of the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, yesterday criticised her husband’s legal consultants for failing to brief her on his transfer to Sokoto prison.

The IPOB leader’s counsel, Aloy Ejimakor, had announced on X (formerly Twitter) on Friday that Kanu had been transferred to a correctional centre in Sokoto following his conviction.

Okwu-Kanu said she only received information about her husband’s transfer to Sokoto after he had arrived at the facility in the Northwest state.

She said certain persons who had visited him earlier in the day did not inform her of the development.

Instead, she said, his lawyers “ran to social media to broadcast it”.

Okwu-Kanu said the behaviour was unprofessional and unacceptable.

“If you all do not sit up and behave in a civilised and professional manner, I will stress you with my ‘stress’, and I promise you, you will be stressed,” she wrote.

“Enough of your theatrics! Be warned!”

Meanwhile, Enyinnaya Abaribe, senator representing Abia south, says the life sentence handed to Kanu was not surprising.

We’ll explore available options for Kanu’s release, says Otti

Abia State governor, Dr. Alex Otti, has assured that all hope was not lost with regard to securing the release of the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, despite his conviction by Justice James Omotosho.

He also cautioned politicians who have positioned themselves to play petty and dirty politics with Kanu’s travails to jettison the idea and rather work with others to secure his freedom.

In a statement he personally signed yesterday, Otti disclosed that the issue of IPOB was poorly managed at the earliest stage, but he had on a personal note engaged the authorities concerned since December, 22, 2023, shortly after he assumed office.

The governor said he was ready to collaborate with any person or group who genuinely wants to push for Kanu’s freedom through diplomacy and dialogue with the federal government.

The governor said: “I still strongly believe that poor management of the IPOB issue at the incubation stage created the problem we have today, hence we cannot allow it to linger and create a bigger monstrous situation for us.

“While the trial that led to this conviction lasted, I personally engaged the authorities at the highest level, starting from December 22, 2023, on alternative resolution strategy.

“I must state that some agreements were made, which were dependent on quick dispensation of the matter at the Federal High Court. Unfortunately, the matter dragged until this time.

“I am confident that judgment having been delivered, the alternative resolution will now kick in.

“It is instructive that this strategy was explained to Mazi Nnamdi Kanu when I visited him while he was in the DSS custody earlier in the year.

“While Mazi Nnamdi Kanu is free to appeal his conviction, I’m happy to inform you that I have activated and will continue to work on the already agreed strategy until his freedom is secured.

“I’m also happy to collaborate with other well-meaning Nigerians who genuinely want this problem resolved, to push for his freedom through the same diplomacy and dialogue with the federal government, which though did not create the problem, can courageously and compassionately solve it and take the credit.

“I’ll like to use this opportunity to appeal to our people to remain calm and refrain from utterances and actions capable of stoking fear, violence and insecurity and may negatively affect the outcome of the engagements we are already having.

“I have no doubt that with the assurances I have received from the Federal Government, a resolution is in sight and Mazi Kanu will regain his freedom.

“May I also caution politicians who have positioned themselves to play petty and dirty politics with the travails of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu to jettison the idea and rather work with us to secure his freedom?

“I want to assure our people of my unwavering resolve and commitment to genuinely solving this problem with wisdom, high level dialogue and diplomacy, with a view to ensuring that genuine peace returns to the Southeast.” (The Nation)