Aloy Ejimakor, legal consultant to the convicted leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra , Nnamdi Kanu, has likened him to the late Premier of the Old Western Region, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, over his decision to represent himself in court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a conversation with our correspondent on Sunday, Ejimakor suggested that Kanu\u2019s refusal to hire lawyers may be delaying the filing of his appeal against his life imprisonment by the Federal High Court in Abuja.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMNK has not filed his appeal yet because he has refused to hire lawyers. You know he disengaged us as his lawyers, so we now act in the capacity of a consultant. I am a consultant to him,\u201d Ejimakor said. \u201cI don\u2019t know why he does not want a lawyer, but I believe it is because he is a great man. Many great men are like that. They believe you can\u2019t present their case like they can themselves. Even Awolowo refused to hire lawyers in his time. MNK wants to represent himself, and there are about four or five processes he has to follow to file the appeal before the Appellate Court.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ejimakor also backed Kanu\u2019s request to be tranferred to Abuja from the Sokoto Correctional Centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said, \u201cThe court already said he can\u2019t be in Kuje prison, so that is fine, but he needs to be closer to Abuja, so if the court will grant his motion to be transferred to Suleja prison or Keffi. To me, there is nothing special about any prison in Nigeria. They are all the same, but MNK needs to be close to Abuja.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During his trial, Kanu opted to represent himself after disengaging his legal team, headed by a former Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Kanu Agabi (SAN).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On November 20, the court found him guilty on all seven terrorism-related charges brought by the Federal Government and sentenced him to life imprisonment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Following his sentencing, Kanu was moved to the Sokoto correctional Facility due to concerns for his safety at Kuje, where previous prison breaks had been recorded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He later filed a motion before Justice James Omotosho of the Federal High Court seeking a transfer from Sokoto to a custodial facility closer to Abuja, such as Suleja or Keffi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the motion, personally signed by him, Kanu asked that it be deemed moved in absentia and sought an order compelling the Federal Government or Nigerian Correctional Service to effect the transfer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Citing eight grounds in the motion marked FHC\/ABJ\/CR\/383\/2015, Kanu explained that his detention in Sokoto\u2014over 700 kilometres from Abuja\u2014made it impracticable to prepare his notice of appeal and record of appeal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He stressed that all persons critical to assisting him, including relatives, associates, and legal consultants, are based in Abuja.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe applicant\u2019s continued detention in Sokoto renders his constitutional right to appeal impracticable, occasioning exceptional hardship and potentially defeating the said right, in violation of Section 36 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended),\u201d the motion stated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kanu argued that transferring him to a facility nearer Abuja would enable him to effectively prosecute his constitutionally guaranteed right of appeal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Aloy Ejimakor, legal consultant to the convicted leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra , Nnamdi Kanu, has likened him to the late Premier of the Old Western Region, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, over his decision to represent himself in court. In a conversation with our correspondent on Sunday, Ejimakor suggested that Kanu\u2019s refusal to hire […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":90055,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-90205","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news"},"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dnllegalandstyle.com\/dnl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Nnamdi-Kanu.jpg?fit=650%2C350&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dnllegalandstyle.com\/dnl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90205","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dnllegalandstyle.com\/dnl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dnllegalandstyle.com\/dnl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dnllegalandstyle.com\/dnl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dnllegalandstyle.com\/dnl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90205"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dnllegalandstyle.com\/dnl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90205\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":90206,"href":"https:\/\/dnllegalandstyle.com\/dnl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90205\/revisions\/90206"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dnllegalandstyle.com\/dnl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dnllegalandstyle.com\/dnl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dnllegalandstyle.com\/dnl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dnllegalandstyle.com\/dnl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}