There is tension and apprehension in the Southern East as the Supreme Court set to deliver its judgement on the appeal seeking to compel the federal government to release the leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, from detention today.
By Ademu Usman Idakwo
The apex court in October fixed the date to 15th December, 2023 (today) after counsel for both the federal government and the detained IPOB leader adopted their final briefs of argument.
The lead counsel to the Biafra agitator, Chief Mike Ozehkome (SAN), who argued the appeal, prayed the court not only order the immediate release of his client from detention, but also equally award punitive costs against the federal government.
However, counsel to the federal government, Tijani Gazzali, in his submission urged the apex court to uphold the amended brief of argument he filed on May 3, 2023. He argued that the court allow the federal government’s appeal, and set aside 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.
Gazzali further urged the apex court to dismiss Kanu’s cross-appeal. It would be recalled that the October 13, 2022, the Court of Appeal Abuja delivered a judgement ordering Kanu’s release from detention.
The Appeal court ruled that he was abducted, ill-treated, and “illegally moved” from Kenya to Nigeria to face treason and terrorism charges.
The judges dismissed the criminal case, but Nigerian prosecutors have appealed and Kanu, who is in his mid-50s, remains in custody. Kanu, the Biafra Republic agitator, was a former London estate agent who also owned the outlawed Radio Biafra station. He was first arrested in 2015 but jumped bail two years later and went back to the United Kingdom, UK and Israel to heighten his campaign against Nigerian government over alleged atrocities committed against Ibos in the country.
