The Federal High Court in Abuja has fixed 20 November 2025 for the delivery of judgment in the terrorism case against the leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu.
Mr Kanu is charged with seven counts of terrorism linked to his campaign for the secession of Nigeria’s southeastern region. He has pleaded not guilty.
The court’s judge, James Omotosho, said that Mr Kanu had failed, for the sixth time, to enter a defence and that the six-day window allocated for him to do so had expired. He refused further delay.
Mr Kanu had earlier filed a motion challenging the court’s jurisdiction, arguing that Nigeria has no valid terrorism law and that the offence of terrorism “has been abolished”.
In his ruling, Judge Omotosho stated: “This court has given opportunity to the defendant under Section 36 as required by the constitution, and I will not allow this to continue.”
He added that the defendant had “waived his right” by repeatedly declining to present a defence.
Mr Kanu’s arrest and extraordinary rendition from Kenya in 2021 have heightened tensions in the southeast, where the majority Igbo population once attempted secession as the Republic of Biafra in 1967. That civil war lasted three years and resulted in over one million deaths.
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