Barely a month after he lost his bid to be freed from continued detention, the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, has sacked his legal team, Vanguard learnt on Thursday.
A highly-place judicial source confirmed to Vanguard that the change of legal team was formally communicated to the legal team led by a Senior Advocate of Nigeria and a vocal legal luminary in Nigeria.
“It is true that shortly after the supreme court ruling Nnamdi Ejimakor and Nnameka Ejiofor met with our leader and he asked them to formally write the termination of the legal contract and give it to the lead counsel. They have already done that and the Senior Advocate of Nigeria has received the letter terminating the contract,” the source said on Thursday.
“In place of the former legal team leader, Nname Kanu has approached another legal luminary from Cross River State to be holding briefs for him. They met recently and had some discussions on how best to handle his legal matters going forward but it is not clear if the former chief legal officer for Nigeria will agree to take up the brief,” the source said.
It was gathered that the detained IPoB leader disbanded his legal team on the notion that the team did not do enough to quash his case and free him from continuous incarceration.
He is said to have lost faith in the legal team, which has also not been able to make a strong case to at least transfer him from the Department of State Services cell to the Kuje Correctional Service where he would have more freedom to relate with his friends and relatives.
Apart from the legal team, Kanu is also said to be unhappy with his medical team, which he feels has also not done enough to bring out a convincing medical report that could facilitate transfer of his treatment from the DSS hospital and doctors to his chosen private doctors outside Nigeria.
It will be recalled that the Supreme Court had on the 15th of December 2023, upheld the Federal Government’s appeal challenging the verdict of the Appeal Court which dismissed the charges against Nnamdi Kanu.
The Supreme Court in the judgement delivered by Justice Emmanuel Agim, but prepared by Justice Garba Lawal, held that the Court of Appeal was wrong to rule that Kanu could not be tried again based on the illegality perpetrated against him by the Federal Government, following the invasion of his home.
Also, the Court held that although the Nigerian Government was reckless and unlawfully rendered Kanu from Kenya, such unlawful act has not divested any Court from proceeding with trial.