The Court of Appeal in Abuja has fixed October 13 for judgment in an appeal filed by the proscribed leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu.
This was disclosed in a statement issued on Wednesday by one of Nnamdi Kanu’s counsels, Ifeanyi Ejiofor.
The statement read, “We wish to inform UmuChineke and all followers of Onyendu Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, that we have just received notification from the Court of Appeal, Abuja Judicial Division, that the long awaited Judgement in Onyendu Mazi Nnamdi Kanu’s Appeal No. CA/ABJ/CR/625/2022 BETWEEN: MAZI NNAMDI KANU VS FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA, will be delivered tomorrow, 13th October 2022 at 2:00PM.
“We are very excited with this news as we look forward to a victorious outing tomorrow. The legal team is leaving no stone unturned as we have been working assiduously behind the scene.
“The hour has come, and it will surely end in Victory. Please do not relent in your prayers as they are positively impacting. We will surely have every cause to rejoice for Victory is ours and it shall surely end in Praises. Thank you all, UmuChineke and remain blessed and law abiding as you have always been.”
The development comes after several months of legal battle between Kanu and the Federal Government.
It would be recalled that Kanu, after his arrest in June 2021, was re-arraigned before a Federal High Court on amended 15 counts bordering on treasonable felony preferred against him by the Nigerian government.
However, on April 8, the Presiding Judge, Justice Binta Nyako struck out eight of the 15 counts.
While ruling on the preliminary objection seeking to quash the charges, the judge said counts 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, and 14 had not disclosed any offence against the defendant (Kanu).
Building on the judgement, Kanu through his team of lawyers led by Mike Ozekhome, filed an appeal marked CA/ABJ/CR/625/2022, praying the court to quash the remaining seven counts for being devoid of merit.
Kanu through his lawyer had argued that under the “doctrine of speciality” as provided for in section 15 of the Extradition Act, the federal government ought to have proceeded to try him on the initial five-count charge on which he was re-arraigned before he fled the country in 2017.
