&w=64&q=75)
The Appeal Court sitting in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory, has upheld the appeal of the embattled leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu.
The court also discharged and acquitted the separatist leader in a three-man panel ruling on Thursday, October 13, 2022.
The Federal Government is prosecuting Kanu at the Federal High Court in Abuja for 15 count charges, including treasonable felony and terrorism, offences he allegedly committed during his agitations for Biafra.
However, the appellate court held that the Federal High Court lacks the jurisdiction to try Kanu considering his abduction and extraordinary rendition to Nigeria, which contravened the Organisation of African Union (OAU) convention and protocol on extradition.
The court ruled that the 15-count charge slammed against the IPOB leader failed to disclose the place, date, time and nature of the alleged offences before he was unlawfully extradited to Nigeria.
The court further held that the Federal Government failed to disclose where Kanu was arrested despite the grave allegations against him.
Kanu's trials: The IPOB leader got into the bad book of the Federal Government following his persistent calls for the breakaway of Southeastern Nigeria to form the Republic of Biafra.
Kanu was operating from outside the shores of the country using the online platform, Radio Biafra, to rally the people of the region for his cause, but he was arrested by the authorities on arriving Nigeria sometime in October 2015.
The Federal Government later levelled an 11-count charge bordering on “terrorism, treasonable felony, managing an unlawful society, publication of defamatory matter, illegal possession of firearms and improper importation of goods, among others,” against him but the court granted him bail in April 2017 on medical grounds.
However, Kanu went to his native town in Afara-Ukwu, near Umuahia, Abia State where he continued his Biafra crusade, before eventually fleeing the country in September 2017 after an invasion of his home by the military.
He was re-arrested and brought back to Nigeria in June 2021 having been sighted in Israel and other places from where he had asked his supporters to employ violence in achieving secession.
Kanu has denied any wrongdoing.