Justice James Omotosho of the Federal High Court has sentenced Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) to life imprisonment.
Justice Omotosho delivered the judgement on Thursday, four years after Kanu was arrested in Kenya under contentious circumstances and returned to Nigeria.
He was subsequently charged with seven counts bordering on terrorism. The judgement was delivered in Kanu’s absence after the IPOB leader insisted that the judgement would not be delivered in the terrorism charge the Federal Government entered against him.
Following the drama that ensued, the presiding judge ordered security agents to bundle him out of the court room for ‘unruly behaviour.’
Omotosho stated that several broadcasts by Kanu, through Radio Biafra, amounted to acts of terrorism, adding that his rhetoric and intention were rooted in violence.
The judge also asserted that Kanu’s sit-at-home order in South-Eastern states constituted terrorism, stressing that the directive violated South-easterners’ freedom of movement.
Justice Omotosho maintained that the IPOB leader lacked the constitutional authority to order people to sit at home.
According to Justice Omotosho, from the evidence before the court, Kanu carried out preparatory terrorism through his broadcasts, in which he ordered the killing of police officers and military officers.
The court said the IPOB leader was found guilty of committing acts of terrorism against the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Kanu was convicted on all seven counts preferred against him, despite the fact that the IPOB leader pleaded non-guilty to the charges.
