The leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, has been sentenced to life imprisonment by the Federal High Court in Abuja.
Justice James Omotosho delivered the verdict on Thursday, November 20, moments after convicting Kanu on all seven terrorism charges brought against him by the Federal Government.
The judgment followed a trial where the prosecution had argued for the death penalty. However, Justice Omotosho rejected the prosecution’s plea for the death penalty, stating the judicial need to temper justice with mercy and the global opposition to capital punishment;
I must temper justice with mercy… The court will follow the admonition of Jesus Christ in the above passage and show mercy to the convict. In addition, the death penalty globally is being frowned upon by the international community
Kanu, a British-Nigerian citizen, was the director of the London-based Radio Biafra and the founder of IPOB, which the Nigerian government banned as a terrorist organization in 2017.
The court found that Kanu’s broadcasts and directives to IPOB and its armed wing, the Eastern Security Network (ESN), directly incited violence against security forces and civilians in the South East region, which the judge classified as “nothing but terrorist acts”. The court was satisfied that the prosecution had proven Kanu’s advocacy constituted acts of terrorism.
Kanu was first arrested in 2015 but secured bail in 2017. He fled the country following a military raid on his home. His bail was revoked in 2019, and he was rearrested in Kenya in 2021 and extradited back to Nigeria. During his time abroad, he used social media and Radio Biafra to heavily criticize the government, which officials say encouraged the subsequent attacks.
Kanu and his supporters have rejected the court’s authority, arguing that the right to self-determination is political and that the trial was a political persecution based on his unlawful extradition.
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