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The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has revealed that it paid a total of $100,000 in legal fees to senior lawyer Mike Ozekhome, SAN, and Barrister Ifeanyi Ejiofor for their roles in the defence of its leader, Nnamdi Kanu, during his trial by the Nigerian government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The two lawyers were part of Kanu\u2019s legal team before the detained separatist leader later chose to represent himself in court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The disclosure was made on Thursday in a statement issued by Madam Nnennaya Anya, head of IPOB\u2019s Finance Directorate, who said the clarification was necessary to address speculation surrounding the legal payments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the statement titled \u201cPublic Clarification on Payment to Chief Mike Ozekhome, SAN, & Ifeanyi Ejiofor,\u201d Anya said the payment was made strictly on Kanu\u2019s instructions and transferred to accounts provided by Ozekhome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She stated that the funds were paid in two instalments, consisting of an initial transfer of $80,000 followed by a second payment of $20,000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to her, the money was specifically meant to cover legal representation and support the defence of Kanu as part of IPOB\u2019s efforts to secure justice for its leader.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Anya said the transaction was duly authorised and executed solely for purposes related to Kanu\u2019s legal defence, adding that records of the transfers remain available within the finance directorate for verification if required by the group\u2019s internal structures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She said the statement was issued in the interest of transparency and accountability and to counter what she described as misinformation about the matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kanu has been at the centre of a prolonged legal battle with the Nigerian government over terrorism-related charges linked to the activities of the separatist group in the South-East.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He is currently challenging his conviction by the Federal High Court in Abuja and has filed an appeal against the ruling. Kanu is serving a life prison sentence at the Sokoto Correctional Centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Neither Ozekhome nor Ejiofor had publicly responded to the claim at the time of filing this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has revealed that it paid a total of $100,000<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":623,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-622","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-home","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n