Aloy Ejimakor, former counsel to the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, has clarified the circumstances surrounding Kanu’s decision to disengage his legal team, including Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Kanu Agabi. According to him, the move was a deliberate strategic step taken personally by Kanu, who remains mentally sound and fully aware of the implications of his choices.
Ejimakor dismissed the term “fired,” saying it distorts the situation.
“It was not about ‘firing’ lawyers. It was a strategic decision — a restructuring of legal representation. Kanu is well-educated, mentally alert, and he knows exactly what he is doing,” Ejimakor explained.
Ejimakor also criticized the Federal Government’s persistent claim that Kanu’s case must be resolved solely through the courts, saying it raises questions about whether a predetermined outcome already exists.
“When someone keeps insisting ‘go to court,’ it begins to look like they are confident of the outcome before the judgment even comes,” he said. “It echoes what happened in historic political trials, where conviction was arranged long before court proceedings.”
BAR. ALLOY EJIMAKOR
In an exclusive interview on Naija Unfiltered Podcast by argued that the constitutional power of the Attorney General to discontinue criminal prosecution has been selectively applied in other cases — but has not been considered for Kanu.
Ejimakor expressed disappointment in Southeast governors for failing to take visible collective action on Kanu’s case, despite earlier declarations that they would intervene.
“If they walked into the Villa as a united bloc and demanded dialogue, the region would applaud them. But that has not happened,” he stated.
Addressing the substance of the case, Ejimakor said Kanu is being prosecuted under the Terrorism Prevention Amendment Act of 2013, which was repealed in July 2022 and replaced by a new law.
“We are in 2025, yet he is being tried under a repealed law. That alone raises serious legal defects,” he said.
He added that the court order proscribing IPOB as a terrorist group — the legal basis for holding Kanu — is still under appeal and therefore not final, making the prosecution legally questionable.
Ejimakor concluded by insisting that the ongoing detention is more political than legal, and that the executive branch has every legal basis to release Kanu if it chooses.
“The issue is not whether he should be free. The issue is why he is still being held.”
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