Kanu’s bail soft-landing for fed govt – MASSOB https://t.co/j4C3QiD1OQ via @todayng https://t.co/f9gnnWYElq

Enjoy the weekend with this cool song from Onyeka Onwenu

I may not study this alone:

NNAMDI KANU’S TRAVAILS: A BARE BAIL DEVOID OF LIBERTY BY CHIEF MIKE A. A. OZEKHOME, SAN, OFR, FCIARB, LL.D CONSTITUTIONAL LAWYER AND HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVIST

By Mike Ozekhome, SAN.

I congratulate Justice Binta Nyako for being courageous enough to even grant bail at all to IPOB leader, Nnamdi Kanu, on health grounds. This is predicated on the truism that the Judiciary has been so humiliated, browbeaten, terrorized and emasculated by the Executive, that it takes extraordinary courage and daring bravado, for a Judge to even grant bail to a much vilified Nnamdi Kanu, whose only “crime” is that he seeks self-determination for his repressed, oppressed, suppressed and marginalized indigenous people of Biafra, a right recognized even by the UNO and AU in all self – determination instruments.
The catch here however, is that in granting the bail, the Judge, apparently trying to tread softly, took back with the right hand what she gave with the left hand. Bail is a constitutional right. It is guaranteed by section 35(5) of the 1999 Constitution, with or without conditions attached. But any conditions so attached to bail must be such that the grant of bail is itself not rendered meaningless and impotent as in the Nnamdi case. Kanu’s bail conditions are outrightly stringent, punitive, discriminatory, profiling and stereotyping. Hear them:
He must produce 3 sureties, who must deposit the sum of 100m each (a ready recipe for corruption).
One of the sureties must be a highly respected Jewish leader since Kanu practices Judaism as his religion (discrimination on the basis of religion).
Produce a highly placed person of Igbo extraction (discrimination on the basis of place of origin and ethnic group).

Chief Mike A. A. Ozekhome, SAN
Produce a respected person who resides and owns landed property in Abuja (a call for the elitist money bags).
Must not attend any rally or grant an interview (breach of freedom of movement and speech).
Must not be in a crowd exceeding 10 persons (denial of freedom of Association).
Must surrender his Nigerian and British passports (denial of freedom of movement).
Must sign an undertaking to be available for trial at all times (normal. This is the main purpose of bail).

His wedding ring and reading glasses to be given back to him (thank God for tokenism).
Must provide monthly update on Kanu’s health (yes, to ensure his health is improving).
Some of the bail conditions are not only troubling, unsetting and punitive, but are simply unconstitutional, as briefly highlighted above.

Section 42(1) of the 1999 Constitution provides that
“a citizen of Nigeria of a particular community, ethnic group, place of origin, sex, religion or political opinion shall not, by reason only that he is such a person:-
(a) be subjected either expressly by, or in the practical application of, any executive or administrative action of the government, to disabilities or restrictions to which citizens of Nigeria of other communities, ethnic groups, places of origin, sex, religions or political opinions are not made subject to; or (b) be accorded either expressly by, or in the practical application of, any law in force in Nigeria or any such executive or administrative action, any privilege or advantage that is not accorded to citizens of Nigeria of other communities, ethnic groups, places of origin, sex, religions or political opinions.
(2) No citizen of Nigeria shall be subjected to any disability or deprivation merely by reason of the circumstances of his birth.
It is crystal clear from these constitutional provisions that the stringent bail conditions granted to Nnamdi have clearly discriminated against him and subjected him to “certain disabilities or restriction” on the basis of his religion, place of birth, political opinion and ethnic group.
What the bail conditions are simply saying is that it will be illegal, forbidden and contrary to the bail conditions were Kanu to do the following:
(a) Kanu cannot be received by a multitude of his village people, kindred and kinsmen, who have missed his presence since his mindless incarceration over one and half years ago, contrary to the right to freedom of Association granted by section 40 of the 1999 Constitution.
(b) That Kanu cannot express his right to freedom of expression clearly guaranteed by section 39 of the Constitution.
(c) That Kanu cannot exercise his freedom of movement guaranteed by section 41 of the Constitution.
(d) That Kanu cannot receive sympathizers, well-wishers and political Associates, once they are more than 10.
(e) That Kanu cannot freely exercise, without being monitored, his freedom of religion and conscience contrary to section 38 of the Nigerian Constitution.
(f) That Kanu cannot, at any given time, even in his household or larger family setting, host more than 10 people (ludicrous; unnatural!).
(g) That Kanu cannot even visit any hospital to take care of his health, because the hospital staff of Doctors, nurses, para-medical staff and other patients, must surely exceed 10 (contrary to section 17(3)(c) of the Constitution.
(h) That Kanu cannot attend church service or the synagogue worship to glorify God in thanksgiving for his release, since such place of worship will harbour hundreds if not thousands, of people (contrary to section 10 and 38 of the Constitution).
(i) That Kanu cannot even go to a busy motor park, airport, seaport, Parks and Gardens, Cinema hall, theatre, to transport himself, watch films or relax, or even go to Shoprite to shop.
(j) That Kanu cannot deliver lectures to students, or groups, or participate in seminars, workshops, summits, conferences, etc., as these involve many people.
(k) That by way of summary, Kanu should remain a hermit, marooned like Robinson Crusoe in the 1719 novel of the same name, by Daniel Defoe, who spent over 28 years as a castaway, after he was washed up on the shores of a deserted island, near the mouth of Oronoco River in South America.
Day by day, we subject the Nigerian society to bottomless ridicule and derision in the comity of Nations. Bail conditions are simply to ensure the attendance of a person in court, and nothing more. Once excessive or punitive, bail loses its purpose, function and goal. I urge Nnamdi Kanu’s lawyers to immediately file an application before the same Justice Binta, for variation of the bail terms to more favourable ones, that will make Kanu a human being once more. I urge the Nigerian judiciary to stand up “gidigba”, to defend the rights of all Nigerians against executive lawlessness, judicial timidity and legislative rascality.

Charles Ogbu
NNAMDI KANU's DEMONIC BAIL CONDITIONS; THE JOKE IS ON THE NIGERIAN GOVT.

Hate is a very dangerous emotion. The most dangerous, actually. The ironic thing about hate is that it does more harm to the hater than it does to the hated. Sadly, the Nigerian state is presided over by a man who hates for a living. It grieves me beyond reason to see that this senseless hate has found it's way into the sacred temple of justice that is the Judiciary.

Yesterday, the 25th day of April, 2017, in the case of the leader of The Indigenous People Of Biafra, Maazi Nnamdi Kanu versus the Nigerian state, the presiding judge, one Binta Nyako, granted bail to the IPOB leader with one hand and took the freedom attached to the bail with the other hand.

According to the judge, Nnamdi Kanu is being granted bail based solely on health ground but in a move that left no one in doubt that the Judge never really meant to grant bail to the Aba-born Prince but was simply bent on distracting Nigerians from the long absence of the gravely ill president Buhari, she gave some of the bail conditions to include that (1) the Biafra strong man must produce a senator, an influential Igbo leader plus a Jewish leader as surety who must all deposit 100million naira each and must have landed property in Abuja (2) he must not be seen in company of more than 10 people. (3) he must not grant any interviews (4)All his passports must be submitted to the court, among others. And his bail will be revoked if he violates any of the aforementioned conditions.

Now, permit me to analyse these conditions:

(1)The Jewish Leader condition:

In her moronic bid to mock Kanu's claim to the Jewish faith, madam Binta Nyako ended up mocking the judiciary and subjecting her position as a Judge to ridicule.

If a Nigerian citizen who lay claim to the Jewish ancestry/religion must produce a Jewish leader to surety him on bail in Nigeria, will a Nigerian who pray towards Mecca also be required to produce an Islamic cleric from Saudi Arabia to stand surety for him, too?? Will my father, Ogbu Nwa-chima, an adherent of the traditional religion, be asked to bring an Amadioha priest as surety if he has a case in Nigerian court?

(2)Kanu Must Not Be Seen In Company Of More Than 10 People:

This particular condition exposes this fulani woman Judge as a hopeless bigot playing a script that is far removed from what the judiciary stands for.

Nnamdi Kanu is the most influential Igbo man alive. He has millions of followers both here in Nigeria and outside this country. There are hundreds of thousands of other Nigerians who really don't care about Biafra but have come to love him because they believe he is a victim of tyranny. Even Kanu's immediate family is made up of more than 10 people seeing as he is of royal blood.

Except you were born dumb, how do you grant bail to such a man and still insist he must not be seen in company of more than 10 people??

The hospital he will visit for his health problem, will he hire soldiers to keep every other persons away?

Even outside the court premises, how do you stop his number-less followers --many of whom have categorically told you to either give them freedom from oppression or kill them-- from mobbing him??

In a clime where confidence in the judiciary holds meaning, madam Binta Nyako would have been relieved of her duty immediately. No Judge whose brain was not producing anti-bodies against itself would give this kind of senseless condition for bail.

(3)Kanu Must Not Grant Interviews

A wise man once said and I quote: "When you cut off a man's tongue, you are not proving him a liar. You are only proving to the people that you are afraid of what that man might say"

I will leave this here.

If Madam Binta Nyako was not a hate merchant like her principal, Buhari, how would she grant bail to a man on health ground and still attach all these devilish conditions? Without Nnamdi Kanu's passport, how would he be able to get medical attention outside Nigeria? Does Binta Nyako really want Kanu to get medical treatment or she plan on seeing him die of ill-health in prison?

If Muhammadu Buhari was not a dark hearted man, why would he be releasing boko haram terrorists from prison with cash compensation and protecting his murderous fulani kinsmen with a special army taskforce while he is using his stooge, madam Binta, to ensure that Kanu who has never killed a fly remains in jail?

If the so called human right activists in Nigeria weren't as useless as the Buhari presidency, they would have since seen that Nnamdi Kanu's case is now a clear case of the abuse of the fundamental human right of a citizen by a 16th century brained highly vindictive No-Where-To-Be-Found President.

Life is fraught with ironies, though. Beautiful Ironies, sometimes. While Nnamdi Kanu and his comrades are smiling and looking healthy in prison, where is their jailer, Muhammadu Buhari? What is his condition today?? Don't get it twisted. Charles Ogbu is simply asking for the whereabout as well as the health status of his "dear" president. Indeed, evil does not pay.

In all of this, I am glad beyond words that the bravest of them all, Nnamdi Kanu, have put the murderous Nigerian govt to shame once more by rejecting those satanic bail conditions. By insisting he would either walk out of prison with his comrades unconditionally or die in prison with them, he has again proven that true leaders are born, not made.

Isn't criminally funny that the Buhari govt which flouted the Dec.17th order by justice Adeniyi Ademola that Kanu be released unconditionally is now expecting reasonable folks to treat the stage-managed ruling by a Judge who has never hidden her bias against the defendant with any iota of seriousness?? It is settled in law that even if a Judge delivers a ruling while visibly under the influence of alcohol, that ruling must either be obeyed or appealed. The Buhari govt neither obeyed nor appealed Justice Ademola's ruling on Kanu.

A president who chooses which court order to obey or disobey is the biggest threat to his country.

A Judge who allows hate to cloud her sense of judgement is not fit to even work as a cleaner in a court.

Nnamdi Kanu was wrong, though. Nigeria is not a Zoo. It is not even a jungle because in jungle, it is all animal for himself. The Jungle does not have a govt which uses the instrumentalities of state to give undue advantage to certain categories of animals while oppressing another category of animals as is the case with Nigeria.

Nigeria is a walking tragedy. Not because a certain Charles Ogbu said so but because it is the only country where pre-historic hate-filled men and women like Buhari and Binta Nyako who are deaf, dumb and blind to the sanctity of human lives as well as the fundamental human rights of citizens are the ones presiding over the affairs of decent people and serving in the temple of justice.

This country is nothing short of a crying shame!!