Court Sentences Nnamdi Kanu to Life Imprisonment

By Adedapo Adesanya

A Federal High Court in Abuja has sentenced the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Mr Nnamdi Kanu, to life imprisonment.

The presiding judge, Justice James Omotosho, handed down the sentence on counts one, four, five, and six, opting for life imprisonment instead of the death penalty.

He was earlier today he found guilty of all the seven-count charges levelled against him by the Nigerian government.

Mr Kanu, who started Radio Biafra, a broadcast organsation that called for an independent state for the Igbo people, in 2009 was found to use the medium to trigger violence and killings in the South East. It was also instrumental in the enforcing a sit at home directive every Monday, affecting economic activities.

The judge said Nigeria is an indivisible state and can’t be divided, adding that anyone agitating for a break up of Nigeria is breaking the law.

“The defendant is using terrorism as a weapon to bring secession to Nigeria. The defendant did not threaten Nigeria only, but his own people,” he declared.

Justice Omotosho also held that Mr Kanu extended his terrorism act to the United States of America, when he ordered that the American Embassy be brought down, in a broadcast, as well as threatening the United Kingdom.

Mr Kanu was first arrested in 2015 and charged with treasonable felony and terrorism, but the case has since taken numerous turns.

In 2017, Mr Kanu fled the country while out on bail, following a military operation at his residence during the time of Operation Python Dance in the South-East.

In June 2021, he was arrested in Kenya under contentious circumstances and brought back to Nigeria, a move his legal team and IPOB describe as an “extraordinary rendition.”

Prior to his sentencing, Mr Kanu who parted with his lawyers and took the case on himself, insisted that proceedings could not continue because he had not yet filed his final written address, accusing the judge of bias and not understanding the law.

The conviction was delivered after Mr Kanu had been forcibly removed from the courtroom for unruly behaviour.