Nigeria’s apex court has fixed December 15, 2023, as the judgment day on appeals regarding the continued detention of Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).
British national Nnamdi Kanu was arrested in Kenya and forcefully extradited to Nigeria in June 2021.
He has been wanted by Nigerian authorities since 2015 when he was charged with terrorism offences.
Kanu was first arrested in Nigeria in 2015 and was granted bail on medical grounds in 2017 before fleeing the country.
The separatist leader has been in detention since 2021 despite a Court of Appeal judgment on October 13, 2022, ordering his release.
The court also struck out eight of the 15-count terrorism charges against him. But the authorities, unwilling to let him go, took the matter to the Supreme Court.
During proceedings on Thursday, Mike Ozekhome, Kanu’s lawyer, prayed the court to order the immediate release of his client from detention and award “very heavy and punitive cost” against the federal government.
“We urge my lords to uphold our cross-appeal in order to do substantial justice to this matter and to the respondent who has been in detention since June 29, 2021, even after the lower court ordered his release and that he should never be prosecuted again on the same counts,” Ozekhome said.
“They are still holding him unconstitutionally. We pray my lords to deliver justice and use this case, just like in Ojukwu vs. State, to demonstrate that no man or government should be above the law.”
Tijjani Gazzali, the federal government’s counsel, persuaded the court to dismiss the judgement of the Court of Appeal which ordered Kanu’s release, and order the resumption of his trial before the Federal High Court in Abuja on terrorism-related charges.
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