The image laundering measures being currently adopted by Justice Binta Nyako of the Federal High Court, Abuja, should be sustained. The embattled Judge through her release recently of Biafran star detainees namely Benjamin Mmadubugwu, David Nwawuisi, Bright Chimezie and Chidiebere Onwudiwe from Kuje Prison, albeit through stringent bail conditions, is one amongst others, geared towards mending her battered judicial career and reputation. For the sake of justice, there still remains a very pivotal resolve needed to be taken to rightly place her name on gold.
Justice Binta Nyako in the history of black Africa, can courageously redeem the already bastardized Nigerian judicial system through the enthronement of justice by pressuring the Nigerian army to release without further delay, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, the extra-judicially incarcerated leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) worldwide and his aged parents. They were abducted and kept incommunicado in secretive custody on the firm instruction of the Federal Government of Nigeria since 14th September, 2017. It should be recalled that a battalion of the Nigerian army backed by tanks and surveillance aircraft, murderously invaded their residence in Isiama, Afara-ukwu, Ibeku-Umuahia in Abia State, Biafraland. Keen observers of judicial processes in the country, would have noted that Justice Binta Nyako has been covertly playing out the script of the Nigerian government against Mazi Nnamdi Kanu in her rulings. The court under her jurisdiction, has surreptitiously, been feigning ignorance to countless and satiable number of evidences/exhibits, alluding to the fact that Mazi Nnamdi Kanu and his parents are under the captivity of the Nigerian army since the raiding of their residence.
Following the path of honor to redressing this spate of extra-judicial treatments, Justice Nyako should wholesomely uphold the tenets of the law and allow justice to prevail. Her release of the IPOB detainees from Kuje Prison is a commendable feat in her professional career and so should escort such rare courage in recent times, to the end.
It is already an established fact even before the highly civilised global community that on the 14th of September 2017, the Nigerian army acting on the instructions of President Muhammadu Buhari, invaded the Palace of His Royal Majesty (HRM), Eze Israel Okwu-Kanu (Ome Udo 1) of Isiama, Afara-ukwu Ibeku, Umuahia in Abia State, Biafraland. They murderously conducted raids with tanks and surveillance aircraft, killing over 28 innocent Biafrans, injuring quite a number, carting others away to unknown destinations and destroying properties worth millions of US dollars. It is imperatively important to place this demand of the whereabouts of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu before the Nigerian army because after the gruesome raid, many lifeless bodies were picked up within and without the residential vicinity, including the surrounding forests with no discovery of the bodies of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu or that of his parents.
Justice Binta Nyako should therefore, in the completion drive of redeeming her battered reputation, employ the powers vested on her as the presiding judge, to courageously compel the Nigerian army to produce Mazi Nnamdi Kanu and his parents or better still, charge the institution to court of law. Continually keeping them in an illegitimate secretive custody since the 14th of September 2017, without verifiable evidence of crimes committed, negates the very essence of known international and Nigerian domestic laws.
Justice Binta Nyako should as a matter of justice and urgency, demand from the Nigerian Army Chief, Lieutenant-General Tukur Buratai and the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, SAN (Senior Advocate of Nigeria), to explain to the world exactly what really took the war-kitted battalion of the army to the compound of an armless and an innocent citizen. They should be asked to state where this man and his parents have been kept since after that gruesome invasion of last year. This is the only pathway to peace and justice in Nigeria. Sustaining this callous connivance and impunity, means an outright defiance against the laws of human rights protection as contained in the Nigerian Constitution amongst other axillary laws of the land.
Justice Binta Nyako should expeditiously do the needful and extricate herself from the diabolic antecedents of a sadistic government. Keeping herself and her enviable professional career from corruption should be the greatest legacy she will bequeath to the present and the upcoming generations.
