The President Bola Tinubu-led Nigerian government has transferred the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, from the Department of State Services (DSS) facility in Abuja to a correctional centre in Sokoto State.
The development was made public on Friday by Kanu’s lawyer, Aloy Ejimakor, who announced the transfer in a post on X.
Ejimakor wrote: “Breaking: MAZI NNAMDI KANU has just been moved from DSS Abuja to the correctional facility (prison) in Sokoto; so far away from his lawyers, family, loved ones and wellwishers.”
Nnamdi Kanu’s legal team had condemned the judgment of the Federal High Court in Abuja, which on Thursday convicted and sentenced the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) to life imprisonment on terrorism charges.
The lawyers had described the verdict delivered by Justice James Omotosho as “a travesty of justice” and vowed to challenge it at the Court of Appeal.
Speaking to journalists after the court session, Kanu’s special counsel, Barrister Aloy Ejimakor, said the ruling marked a dark day in Nigeria’s judicial history.
“Today will forever be in Nigeria history. Today is the only day I have witnessed a man being convicted for just what he said from his mouth, not what he did with his own hands,” Ejimakor said.
Ejimakor argued that the evidence presented in court did not support the conviction handed down.
“The verdict is not consistent with the evidence laid before the court. The sentence is overbroad, cruel and unusual,” he said.
“How can you convict a man for making a mere broadcast from a location that was never named, and you never tied that broadcast to any single incidents of violence, or even someone slapping someone, not to talk of terrorism?”
He insisted that Kanu’s advocacy for self-determination did not amount to a criminal act.
“To pursue a separate nation of yours is not a crime. In Nigeria today, if somebody says, ‘don’t be silly’, he will get convicted.
“Mazi Nnamdi Kanu made broadcasts, and so what? You convict him for terrorism for mere words in the Federal Republic of Nigeria. What kind of precedence is being laid?”
Ejimakor said the team would immediately begin the appeal process.
“From here we are heading to the Court of Appeal. We are going to approach the justices there to check out what happened here today.
“We are very sure that justices there will agree that today was a symbol of travesty of justice that everybody has been suspecting all along.
“If the Court of Appeal disagrees with us, we will head to the Supreme Court, but by God Almighty, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu is not going to stand convicted. It is going to get overturned.”
Another member of the defence team, Barrister Maxwell Okpara, also criticised the judgment, saying it was driven by anger rather than legal reasoning.
Okpara appealed for calm in the South-East, urging supporters not to resort to violence.
He said the legal team remained confident that higher courts would correct what they believe to be a grave miscarriage of justice.
