Chief Mike Ozekhome (SAN) and Ifeanyi Ejiofor yesterday said the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, has not sacked them as his lawyers.

They said Kanu’s family lacked the right to fire them when it did not hire them in the first place.

The duo was reacting to a tweet by Kanu’s younger brother, Kanunta, in which he stated that the family had terminated the appointment of Ozekhome and Ejiofor.

In the tweet entitled: “Notice of Dismissal”, the younger Kanu stated: “I hereby formally notify @MikeozekhomeSAN and @lfeanyiEjiofor that their services are no longer required in #MaziNnamdiKanu case pending before the Supreme Court of Nigeria and all concerning him.”

Kanunta alleged that Ozekhome and Ejiofor refused to allow Kanu’s personal physicians access him for an urgent ear examination on June 5.

According to him, the lawyers were “duly informed” on June 2 about the visit “and #MNK (Kanu) told them to inform his family to arrange that”.

He added that since Kanu’s case came up on May 11, Ozekhome “has refused to see his client in DSS headquarters Abuja even after several messages from #MNK to see him”.

“For these obvious reasons and many more,” he tweeted, Ozekhome and Ejiofor are “hereby sacked as Mazi Nnamdi Kanu’s lawyers”.

But the lawyers, in a statement to The Nation by Ejiofor, said they visited Kanu in custody at the Department of State Services (DSS) headquarters yesterday to brief him on his cases, including the one coming up on June 20 at the Federal High Court.

Ejiofor said the doctors who sought to see Kanu were not there to participate in any surgical procedure.

He said the legal team did not abandon Kanu but is “monitoring every situation” and is not “resting on our oars”.

The lawyer described as “defamatory and very disappointing” the statement by Kanunta.

Ejiofor stated: “Let it be on record that neither Kingsley Kanu nor Emmanuel Kanu had at any point in time briefed me to handle Onyendu Mazi Nnamdi Kanu’s case or even IPOB’s matters.

“My letters of engagement issued to me in 2015 by Onyendu Mazi Nnamdi Kanu and IPOB are still with me to date.

“Neither Kingsley Kanu nor anybody acting on his behalf engaged Prof. Mike Ozekhome, SAN, to represent Onyendu in any matters affecting him.

“Biafrans and members of the public are aware that Onyendu specifically requested to see Prof. Ozekhome upon his abduction and extraordinary rendition to Nigeria.

“During that meeting, which details are already in the public domain, Onyendu personally briefed Prof. Ozekhome to head his legal team.

“To date, Prof. Ozekhome has done creditably and overwhelmingly well in deploying his advocacy skills in representing Onyendu in all courts in Nigeria.”

Ejiofor stressed that at no time during their meeting with Kanu did the IPOB leader express any doubts about their continuing to defend him.

“I wish to unequivocally state that Onyendu Kanu never dismissed, disengaged or expressed any intention of dismissing his legal team ably led by Prof. Ozekhome.

“Biafrans and indeed the members of the general public are respectively advised to ignore in its entirety, the obviously defamatory, mischievous, fake, reprehensible, denigrating, insulting and unauthorised public notice issued by Kingsley Kanu alias Kanunta Kanu, as it is not true,” the statement adds.