Uchechi Okwu-Kanu, wife of Nnamdi Kanu, the convicted leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra — has responded to the life sentence handed down to her husband by the Federal High Court on Thursday.
Kanu’s wife maintained that a judge cannot ask a defendant to open a defense on terrorism related charges without reading out the written law under which the court is trying the person.
Uchechi alleged that the judge read a script handed over to him in sentencing Kanu to life imprisonment.
She also claimed that the judge could barely read out some of the words in his own very written judgment.
The Federal High Court in Abuja on Thursday sentenced Nnamdi Kanu to life imprisonment.
Justice James Omotosho handed down the judgment after delivering a landmark ruling in the trial of the IPOB leader.
Omotosho had earlier convicted Kanu on all seven counts of terrorism charges brought against him by the Department of State Services.
In his judgment, the judge held that the prosecution presented sufficient and credible evidence to prove its case.
He noted that Kanu failed to enter a defence, instead choosing to rest his case on the prosecution’s evidence—a gamble the court said left it with no option but to convict.
However, Kanu’s wife said: “In Nigeria, a judge cannot ask a defendant to open a defense on terrorism related charges without reading out the written law under which the court is trying that person. Okay, so the constitution of the Federal Republic of of Nigeria, 1999 as amended, section 36, I mean, I’m sure that is very familiar to everyone now.
“It provides that a person shall not be convicted of a criminal offense unless the the offense is defined and the penalty prescribed as in a written law. So what Omotosho has done today is a script, a written script for him to read out. Everyone could hear him. Everyone could see that he was reading a script handed over to him and that he could barely read out some of the words in his own very written judgment. How interesting. How interesting.
“I’ve had to quickly tweet and well post the the travesty of justice today regarding how Omotosho ignored the Constitution’s requirement that none can be convicted under an unwritten or unknown offense.
“He forced Mazi Nnamdi Kanu to take a plea under a repealed law, which Mazi Nnamdi Kanu refused. So show me where it is written before I can enter into a defense. And that never happened.
“Omotosho refused, blatantly, flagrantly, to issue written rulings on serious applications. So you could hear him reading. You could hear him counting 1000s of lines of hours of account.
“But then he refused to issue a written a written ruling, which he ought to have done first, but never did. He told Mazi Nnamdi Kanu to put all objections in a final address, then block the final address. So if you were Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, you will be as outraged as he was this afternoon.
“You cannot ask me to put my final address, put it down, write it down, and then you block it. So Mazi Nnamdi Kanu has right. It is his right to put a final address down, to write it down. But a Omotosho blocked that and decided to read out those nonsense he called counts.”
