By James Orji
Mike Ozekhome, a senior advocate of Nigeria, SAN is now to lead the legal team of the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB Nnamdi Kanu. He took over from Ifeanyi Ejiofor, who the magazine leant will still remain a member of the legal team to defend the IPOB leader in his treason case against the Federal Government.
The development comes on the heels of the federal government decision to file fresh charges against the ontroversial IPOB leader who was arrested in Kenya last year and has since been put on trial by the Buhari administration.
On Monday, the federal government amended the seven count charge it prefered against the IPOB leader to 15 in his ongoing trial at the Federal High Court, Abuja.
Ejiofor had last December, said efforts were being made to fortify Kanu’ s legal team during a visit to Kanu in custody of the Department of State Services, DSS. He said the decision was taken in order to give the IPOB leader good legal representation.
But the magazine learnt that Kanu had personally demanded that his team be fortified to include senior lawyers in order to get maximum result, particularly following the perceived flip flop so far witnessed in the efforts to secure his bail from DSS custody.
Ejiofor had said, “I want to assure you, Umuchineke, that our legal team, is, presently, more fortified than ever to do battle in Court, and God being on our side, victory is assured. We paid our routine visit to our untiring, unwavering, unrelenting, rock-solid and noble client, Onyendu Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, at the DSS detention facility at Abuja.
“The visit, this time, was spectacular and was greeted by an infectious air of camaraderie. Onyendu was particularly enthused by the visit and preferred to describe it as ‘A surprise Christmas Present’. You may not understand the peculiarity of this visit and the how significant it is.
“But in due course, I am certain you will be in the best position to fully appreciate the wisdom that informed it. Suffice it to say that as the lead attorney of Onyendu, I took advantage of the visit to unveil a legal giant, a distinguished and an accomplished member of the Inner Bar, whom I have chosen to fortify our defence team. The learned Senior counsel is an excellent and a consummate learned gentleman, distinguished in academics and in the practice of law in our law courts.
“The reason that informed this arrangement is my unflinching desire to throw in every weapon in our arsenal to ensure that Onyendu gets the best at all times. This latest master stroke, evident in the legal giant that has intervened, came to Onyendu as a big surprise. Although he was not oblivious of my arrangement to enlist the assistance and co-operation of a Senior Attorney, he did not know that I could get a Senior Attorney of the rarest breed”.
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