The family of Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) leader Nnamdi Kanu has demanded that Justices John Tosho and Binta Nyako, the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, face punitive measures.
In accordance with Nyako’s recusal, Kanu’s case was reportedly moved to a different judge via Chief Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun.
In a statement issued on Sunday by Kanu’s attorney, Aloy Ejimakor, the family of the IPOB leader expressed disappointment that the Chief Justice had to step in in order for Justices Tosho and Nyako to follow the court’s decision.
“While we applaud the Honourable Chief Justice of Nigeria’s prompt action to ensure that a competent judge free from bias or one who openly and shamelessly appeals to tribal sentiments or has a propensity to give in to executive manipulation is assigned to oversee Mazi Nnamdi Kanu’s ten-year sham trial, we find it shocking that Binta Nyako had to have the support of the Nigerian public and the country’s highest ranking judicial official in order to follow her own order of recusal in her own court,” the statement read.
They maintained that punishment was warranted for Tosho and Nyako’s apparent disobedience of court instructions.
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“John Tsoho, the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, and Binta Nyako, the presiding judge who issued the recusal order, should both face consequences for tarnishing the reputation of the judiciary in any rational nation that values upholding the rule of law. Does a judge who openly disobeyed a court order not seem strange? It said that a chief judge who attempted to invalidate a legitimate court order by a phantom memo, or written note, and a presiding judge who openly disregarded the order she enrolled in her own court had no right to serve on the bench.
The prosecution of their son would reveal judicial corruption, Kanu’s relatives added.
“This case is just getting started, and by the time this fake trial is over, the world will be able to see how the Nigerian judiciary uses selective justice. The harm that Nigeria’s court is about to endure is unthinkable, and the public will never forget it,” it continued.
