The leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, has been transferred from the Department of State Services (DSS) custody in Abuja to the Nigerian Custodial Centre in Sokoto.
This comes barely 24 hours after a Federal High Court in Abuja sentenced him to life imprisonment for terrorism-related charges, following a trial that concluded on Thursday.
Kanu’s legal counsel, Aloy Ejimakor, confirmed the relocation on Friday, expressing concern that the decision to transfer him places the separatist leader far away from his legal team, family, and well-wishers.
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 – the lawyer wrote
Justice James Omotosho on Thursday, ordered that Kanu be kept in protective prison custody in any part of the country other than the Kuje Correctional Centre, based on two reasons;
The judge noted that Kanu’s continuous tendency for violence, demonstrated by his conduct during the trial and the atrocities linked to his orders, meant his safety could be a concern from aggrieved persons who lost loved ones.
As a result of the past jailbreaks and the need for a suitable, secure facility, the court determined Kuje prison was inappropriate.
The court also ordered that Kanu must not be allowed near any digital device and that the unlawfully imported radio transmitter seized from him be forfeited to the Federal Government.
Justice Omotosho found Kanu guilty on all seven counts of the terrorism-related charge leveled against him by the Federal Government.
The most severe counts carried a potential death penalty, but Justice Omotosho opted for life imprisonment, stressing the need to temper justice with mercy and global trends against capital punishment.
The judgment affirmed that Kanu’s broadcasts, where he threatened the existence of Nigeria, referred to the country as a “Zoo,” and enforced sit-at-home orders that led to economic shutdown and bloodshed, constituted acts of terrorism.
The verdict has been met with immediate and divided reactions from the legal and political communities.
Kanu’s legal team, led by Aloy Ejimakor, challenged the ruling and vowed to file an appeal to the Court of Appeal and potentially the Supreme Court. Ejimakor called the verdict a travesty of justice, arguing that convicting a person for mere pronouncements without tying the broadcasts to specific acts of violence was wrong.
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