Police operate Thursday in central Abuja, Nigeria. Police prevented a march for the release of Nnamdi Kanu, a British political activist and founder and leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra in custody since June 2021. Photo Provided by Emmanuel Adegboye/EPA
A court in Nigeria convicted Biafran separatist leader Nnamdi Kanu on charges of terrorism about 10 years after he was first arrested.
Kanu, leader Indigenous People of Biafra group, initially was remanded into state custody October 2015 and faced several charges.
Kanu, 58, holds dual British-Nigerian citizenship. The judge alleged Kanu weaponized his status to stir violent attacks on civilians and security personnel in the southeast Nigerian state, while security in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital city, was tightened due to fear of protests by Kanu’s Biafran syndicate.
“His intention was quite clear as he believed in violence. These threats of violence were nothing but terrorist acts,” according to Judge James Omotosho.
Nigerian prosecutors called for Kanu to face the death penalty.
The Indigenous People of Biafra group has led a resurgence of support for Biafra to secede from Nigeria.
Kanu previously faced charges of treason but was granted bail 18 months later and disappeared until a 2021 extradition via Kenya. The Biafra leader has long denied any charges against him.
He dismissed his own legal representation and was later removed from court due to reportedly “unruly” behavior.
“Which law states that you can charge me on an unwritten law? Show me,” Kanu told the judge.
“Omotosho, where is the law? Any judgment declared in this court is a complete rubbish,” he added.
Last month, police deployed tear gas in Abuja and broke up a number of protests calling for Kanu’s freedom.
On Thursday, Omotosho further claimed Kanu allegedly “knew what he was doing, he was bent on carrying out these threats without consideration to his own people.”
“From the incontroverted evidence, it is clear that the defendant carried out preparatory act of terrorism,” the judge stated, saying Kanu had “the duty to explain himself but failed to do so.”
Meanwhile, a left-wing African leader said Thursday he warned this month that Kanu’s verdict had “already been decided by the Bola Ahmed Tinubu regime. Today, they executed that script word for word.”
The trial “has ceased to be about justice; it is now a test of conscience for the Nigerian state and its citizens alike,” Omoyele Sowore, a Nigerian politician, human rights activist and 2023 presidential candidate, said on X.
He said the outcome was “predetermined far in advance” and now being “dressed up in the guise of judicial procedure.”
Meanwhile, he is expected to be sentenced Thursday.
