The Federal High Court in Abuja, on Friday, fixed Nov. 20 for judgment in the trial of Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IOPB) on alleged terrorism offences.
Justice James Omotosho fixed the date after Kanu’s defence was foreclosed following his insistence that he would not enter his defence under a repealed law.
“This court has given opportunity to the defendant under Section 36 as required by the constitution and I will not allow this to continue,” Justice Omotosho said.
“It is based on this, without hesitation, that I say that the defendant has waived his right,” Justice Omotosho said.
BACKGROUND
The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja, in 2022, discharged and acquitted the embattled leader of the proscribed group.
It declared as illegal and unlawful the abduction of Kanu from Kenya to Nigeria on July 9, 2021 and quashed the entire terrorism charges brought against him by the Federal Government.
The appellate court held that the Federal Government breached all known local and international laws in the forceful rendition of Kanu to Nigeria thereby making the terrorism charges against him incompetent and unlawful.
The Appeal Court, in a judgment read by Justice Oludotun Adebola, voided and set aside the terrorism charges by the Federal Government against Kanu.
Kanu had in his appeal dated April 29 and marked CA/ABJ/CR/625/2022 applied to be discharged and acquitted. He was first arraigned on December 23, 2015, but was later granted bail on April 25, 2017.
Dissatisfaction with the Nigerian state and the quest for sovereignty had led the late Biafran leader, Colonel Chukwuemeka Ojukwu, to declare the exit of the Republic of Biafra from Nigeria in May 1967.
President Muhammadu Buhari’s regime in September 2017 outlawed IPOB and declared that the activities of the group constituted an act of terrorism and illegality.
Before then, Kanu was arrested and detained but was later released from the Kuje Prison in Abuja after meeting bail conditions.
The IPOB leader later fled the country and operated from overseas before he was renditioned from Kenya.
Kanu, who holds Nigerian and British passports, was arrested by security operatives outside his London base.
He had been declared wanted by the Federal Government since 2017 after he jumped bail following the invasion of his country home in Abia State by soldiers.
