Aloy Ejimakor, Special Counsel for the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and its detained leader, Nnamdi Kanu, has stated that releasing his client is legal and not an act of mercy as being canvassed in some quarters.

In a statement, yesterday, Ejimakor clarified that the matter of releasing Kanu is not an act of executive clemency or even amnesty, stating: “It’s an act of doing the right by simply complying with subsisting municipal court order or standing international tribunal decision that independently declared his detention illegal.

He stated that Kanu’s continued detention is not legal, but manifestly extrajudicial and unconstitutional, adding: “Alternatively, the decision can also properly proceed through sound invocation of copious constitutional provisions on discontinuation of prosecutions, such as this that is irredeemably unsustainable.

“It needs to be emphasised that for the obvious reason that Kanu is neither currently facing any trial, nor does he have any charges standing against him, his detention is, in reality, an imprisonment without conviction.

“In plain terms, he is a victim of false imprisonment by the state. A rough and tough imprisonment that is more horrendous when the locale is not a prison or a correctional institution, but a hideous Department of State Services (DSS) cell, which is not different from a dank police cell or even worse in some ramifications.”

The detained IPOB leader, who was renditioned to Nigeria in 2021 from Kenya, even as a British citizen, has been in detention in Nigeria’s DSS cell despite court orders for his release.