The Supreme Court, on Thursday, fixed December 15, 2023, to deliver judgement on the appeal seeking the release of the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Nnamdi Kanu, from detention.
The Herald reports the Appeal Court sitting in Abuja had in a judgement delivered on October 13, 2022, ordered Kanu’s release.
A three-member panel in a unanimous decision also quashed a 15-count terrorism charge that the Federal Government filed against the detained IPOB leader, before the Federal High Court in Abuja.
Dissatisfied with the judgement, FG took the matter before the Supreme Court.
At the proceedings on Thursday, a five-member panel of the apex court headed by Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, fixed the matter for judgment after the parties involved in the case adopted their final briefs.
The counsel for Kanu, Mike Ozehkome, SAN, while adopting his final brief urged the court to order the immediate release Kanu from detention and in turn award a heavy punitive cost against the FG for detaining his client against he court’s order.
“We urge my lords to uphold our Cross-Appeal 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.
“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,” he stated.
On his part, the FG’s lawyer, Gazzali, SAN, prayed the Supreme Court to set aside the judgment of the Court of Appeal which ordered Kanu’s release.
Background
Nnamdi Kanu, who leads a separatist campaign for the secession of the mainly Igbo-speaking Southeast states and parts of neighbouring states as the independent Biafra Republic, is being incarcerated at the headquarters of the State Security Service (SSS) in Abuja.
His trial on charges of treasonable felony and terrorism started after his arrest over his separatist activities in 2015. But the case went into a pause after he fled the country in the wake of a military invasion of his home in Afara-Ukwu, Abia State, while he was on bail in September 2017.
The IPOB leader was forcibly brought back from Kenya by the Nigerian government in June 2021 to face trial.
However, ruling on an application Mr Kanu later filed to challenge the entire 15 charges, the trial Federal High Court in Abuja dismissed eight of the counts adjudged to be inappropriate.
Displeased with the partial discharge handed down by the court, Mr Kanu proceeded on appeal to the Court of Appeal in Abuja to attack the rest of the seven counts.
The Court of Appeal acceded to his request by dismissing the remaining seven counts and ordering his release from custody in its judgement handed down on 13 October 2022.
The appellate court based its decision on its finding that the extraordinary rendition mode of returning Mr Kanu to Nigeria breached both local and international laws.
Leave a Reply