A Nigerian federal high court has set a November 20 date to issue its judgment in separatist leader Nnamdi Kanu’s terrorism case, after Kanu refused for the sixth time to enter a defence against government allegations that he led an outlaw group fighting to separate the southeastern region off from the rest of Nigeria.
Kanu, who leads the banned Indigenous People of Biafra, is facing a seven-count terrorism charge stemming from his campaign for the secession of southeastern Nigeria. He denies wrongdoing.
On Friday Kanu filed a motion challenging the court’s jurisdiction, arguing that Nigeria has no existing terrorism law and that the offence of terrorism has been abolished.
Instead, Justice James Omotosho said Kanu had exhausted the six-day window allocated for his defence and the court had no option but to close the case, which has become a lightning rod for unrest in the southeast.
Omotosho added that Kanu could not claim he had been denied a fair trial as he had repeatedly declined to present a defence despite being urged to do so.
Kanu’s arrest and extraordinary rendition from Kenya in 2021, and his prolonged detention have deepened regional tensions and rekindled separatist sentiments among the predominantly Igbo people of southeastern Nigeria.
A 1967 attempt by the region to secede as the Republic of Biafra triggered a three-year civil war that killed more than 1 million people.
