IPOB Rejects Court’s Life Sentence For Nnamdi Kanu

The Indigenous People of Biafra has rejected Thursday’s judgment of the Federal High Court in Abuja sentencing its leader, Nnamdi Kanu, to life imprisonment on seven terrorism-related charges.

In a statement on Friday by its spokesman, Emma Powerful, the group insisted that Kanu “committed no offence known to Nigerian law” and maintained that his agitation amounted only to self-determination, which it argued is a protected right under international conventions.

Powerful faulted the judgment delivered by Justice James Omotosho, accusing the judge of refusing to apply Section 36(12) of the 1999 Constitution, which states that a person shall not be convicted of an offence unless it is defined in a written law.

The statement read in part, “The IPOB wishes to inform the global community, diplomatic missions, international media, and lovers of freedom that we shall, in the coming days and weeks, lay bare the fundamental defects, contradictions, and illegalities that define the recent ruling issued by Justice James Omotosho of the Federal High Court, Abuja.