By Emeka Ugwuony
Nnamdi Kanu’s goal at this point is clear and simple. He wants to prolong the case and delay the trial. He understands that once convicted, it will be harder to get a political solution to his case. Once a convict, he will be in a much weakened position. He needs more time to see if the trial could be aborted and there will not be a conviction. You can understand all the efforts to halt the trial.
Once his no-case submission was rejected, a protest became the next option. Why a protest? The goal was to massively destabilize Abuja, the South-East, and Lagos to force Tinubu’s government to withdraw the charges against Kanu and set him free. But that was a miscalculation. They misread the mindset of the government. They also misread the mood of Nigerians – this was not going to be another spontaneous End-SARS protest. So, the protest did not destabilize anything. Instead, the organizers were arrested and detained.
Normally, after the court denied his no-case submission and directed that he enter his defense, his lawyers would meet with him to plan for his defense. This meeting was so sensitive they did not want to hold it at the DSS facility so they would not be spied on. They requested to hold the meeting at the courthouse. The meeting was held on the 23rd of October. In that meeting, his lawyers, then led by Akanu Agabi, SAN, must have made it clear to him that he did not have anything to defeat the case the government has made against him. Kanu would have at this moment asked about the political options and the lawyers would have told him they had no control over that.
At this point, Kanu would have entered into a panic mode. He would have asked if the trial could be delayed so he could buy time to pursue further the political settlement. The lawyers would have told him they had no power to delay the trial any further. It would have been clear to all that Justice Omotosho was determined to let the trial move on without further delays. It is during that last meeting that Kanu would have suggested certain measures like calling a long list of witnesses. His lawyers would have told him that such a move was not tenable. Those witnesses were not necessary, they would not come voluntarily and the court would probably not compel them because their testimonies would not be relevant for his defense. There was something very important about this meeting: Ejimakor and Kanu Nta (Nnamdi’s brother and manager) were not present, as they were still detained in Kuje prison. Maxwell Okpara was busy shuttling back and forth to Kuje to get them out; they were distracted by that. So, in the meeting of October 23, Nnamdi faced alone the seasoned lawyers in his defense team and they told him the truth: there is basically no magic bullet to shoot down the prosecution’s case.
It is also possible that Kanu suggested to them that they should confront the judge or disrupt the trial by some dramatic measures we saw in the past – fight the judge or storm out of court. But these senior lawyers are not the kind of lawyers any client could push. So, they must have refused any such suggestion. If disrupting the trial became the only strategy, these senior lawyers would rather not be part of it: they wouldn’t even want to witness that.
On Friday, October 24, when the trial was to continue, the court was informed that Kanu had fired his lawyers and decided to defend himself. His lawyers all withdrew that day. Kanu asked the court to give him 90 days to prepare for his defense. That was the move – to delay the trial to buy time for a political deal. But the judge saw through that. The judge told him to commence his defense that same day which was the day the defense was to start its case. Kanu was not ready. The senior lawyers who had just withdrawn begged the judge to give Kanu some time. The court agreed and adjourned to Monday, October 27.
Things were not moving as Kanu had expected. On October 27, Kanu was not able to start his defense. He complained that the DSS did not allow him to get his files. The judge ordered that his files should get to him. On October 28, Kanu filed documents challenging the jurisdiction of the court, raising again the rendition objection which the Supreme Court had settled in 2023. The judge told him these matters would be addressed in his judgment, that he should move on with his defense. The court again warned him that he would be foreclosed if he continued to beat about the bush. The court adjourned to the 4th of November. On that day, Kanu came up with new excuses. The court warned him again and adjourned to November 7.
On November 7, Kanu addressed the court. He rambled and in the end refused to open his defense. The judge foreclosed him and set November 20th for his final judgment. Since then, Kanu has been looking for new ways to stop the judgment. He filed an application telling the judge to defer the judgment; that is to postpone the judgment. He also wrote a letter to the Chief Justice of Nigeria urging her to intervene to stop the judgment.
We are now 4 days away from judgment. Also, in all this, Kanu has been trying to drag Justice Omotosho into a confrontation in the hope to have a reason to ask him to recuse himself as he did to Justice Nyako. However, this court seems to be aware of his objective and has carefully refused to engage. The judge has maintained restraint.
It is important that this trial is not delayed any further. It should come to an end so that the country can move to the next level in the search for peace in the South-East.