In Nigeria, the Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja has reserved its judgment against the appeal filed by the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, challenging the 7-count charge brought against him by the Federal Government of Nigeria.
The bench led by Justice Jummai Hannatu refused to quash the terrorism and treasonable felony charge the Federal Government preferred against Kanu.
Recall that a federal court in Abuja, the Nigerian capital, had dismissed eight of the 15 terror charges against Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of a separatist group, the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).
Kanu’s team of lawyers led by Chief Mike Ozekhome, SAN, had approached the appellate court to query the legal competence of the charge pending against him.
Ozekhome argued before the court that Kanu was on holiday according to the terms of his bail before he was unlawfully attacked by the state’s agent and was eventually illegally extradited.
“My lords, he was enjoying this bail without breaching the terms. However, he was in his ancestral home when agents of the Respondent invaded his home in September 2017. He barely escaped alive by sheer providence and found himself first in Isreal and later in London.
“When the Appellant travelled from London to Kenya, agents of the Respondents, on June 27, 2021, forcefully abducted the Appellant, tortured and renditioned him back to the country without following any extradition process”, Ozekhome submitted.
“This allegation of his forceful abduction and rendition was never denied by the Respondent.
Meanwhile, FG, through its lawyer, Mr. David Kaswe, urged the court to dismiss the appeal for want of merit. He maintained that the IPOB leader was brought back to the country by due process of the law.
The panel after it had listened to both sides, said it would communicate a date for the judgment.
Nigeria has had a number of separatist agendas spring up since her political independence in 1960, but the cry for self-determination amongst various ethnic-based groups has been more amplified in the heterogeneous West African country since the current President Muhamadu Buhari came into power in 2015.