The Supreme Court on Friday, will rule on the appeals lodged by the federal government and the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu.
A five-member panel headed by Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun had in October fixed the date after counsel for both the federal government and the separatist leader adopted their final briefs of argument.
Ozehkome, legal representative of the embattled separatist leader, prayed the court to not only order the immediate release of his client from detention but to equally award very heavy and punitive costs against the federal government.
In his submission, however, counsel to the federal government, Tijani Gazzali, urged the apex court to uphold the amended brief of argument he filed on May 3, 2023.
He prayed the court to allow FG’s appeal, set aside the judgement of the Court of Appeal which ordered Kanu’s release, and order the resumption of his trial before the Federal High Court in Abuja on terrorism-related charges.
Gazzali further asked the apex court to dismiss Kanu’s cross-appeal.
On October 13, 2022, the Court of Appeal Abuja delivered a judgement ordering Kanu’s release from detention.
The court ruled that he was abducted, maltreated, and “illegally renditioned” from Kenya to Nigeria to face treason and terrorism charges.
But before the judgment could be executed, the federal government immediately applied to the Court of Appeal for a stay of execution pending the determination of its appeal against the judgment, an application the Court of Appeal granted.
Justice Binta Nyako of the Federal High Court, in an earlier ruling, struck out eight counts out of the 15 counts in the original charge filed against Kanu, leaving seven, which the Court of Appeal quashed in its judgment.
