JUST IN: Buhari’s Claim That Nnamdi Kanu Jumped Bail Is Careless – IPOB Lawyer Insists

Ifeanyi Ejiofor, the lead counsel for the Indigenous People of Biafra has said that President Muhammadu Buhari’s claim that Nnamdi Kanu jumped bail is false and careless.

President Buhari had during his meeting with United Kingdom’s Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, in Rwanda, said the IPOB leader jumped bail and may do it again if such privilege was granted to him again.

“He (Kanu) felt very safe in Britain, and said awful things against Nigeria. We eventually got him when he stepped out of the United Kingdom, and we sent him to court. Let him defend all that he has said there. His lawyers have access to him. Remember he jumped bail before, how are we sure he won’t do it again, if he’s admitted to bail?” the president had said.

But in a press statement on Friday, Ejiofor said that Buhari should not have touched on Kanu’s bail request because ruling on it was fixed for July 28.

He argued that Kanu’s departure from Nigeria was in view of the attack on his family house in Abia by the military.

The statement partly reads: “My attention has been drawn vide calls and messages from foreign colleagues, friends and well wishers to a profoundly shocking statement credited to the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Major General Muhammadu Buhari, at a bilateral meeting he held with the British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, on the sidelines of the 26th Common Wealth Heads of Government Meeting at Kigali, Rwanda.

“The statement was in fact an insinuation by the President that the indefatigable leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Onyendu Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, jumped bail the last time he was admitted to bail in Nigeria, and pretentiously asked whether anyone knows whether he would jump bail again.

“Every reasonable and fair minded person who knows the event that transpired at Afarukwu Ibeku, Umuahia, between the 10th and 14th of September, 2017, must be alarmed that the President of Nigeria can afford to make this type of statement.

“With profound respect, the statement is careless, mischievous, utterly false in character and in content, pedestrian, and confirms once again, the entrenched hatred, odium, and contempt this infinitely divisive and partisan President has for people of the Igbo race.

“For the President to make this kind of false and prejudicial statement about a week to the delivery of a reserved Ruling on a critical application to set aside the Order revoking the bail of ONYENDU Mazi Nnamdi KANU, brought on his behalf and pending at the Federal High Court, Abuja, speaks volume.

“What really was the raison d’ etre for the statement? Is it a veiled warning to the court? Does it preempt an already settled position? Will the outcome of this crucial application be merely a fait accompli? Is the statement a prognosis of what would transpire in court on the 28th of June, 2022? Is there a nexus between this statement and the ultimate decision that would eventuate on the application?

“The Ruling of the 28th of June, 2022, will confirm whether or not these musings are justified.”