A court in Nigeria has found separatist leader Nnamdi Kanu guilty of terrorism following a decade-long legal case full of drama and sentenced To Life Imprisonment.
The court said it was satisfied that Kanu had made a series of broadcasts to incite violence and killings, as part of his campaign for a separate state in south-east Nigeria, known as Biafra.
Kanu has been convicted on all seven charges he faced, as well as terrorism. They included treason and involvement with an outlawed movement.
The prosecution called for the death penalty, although this is rarely carried out in Nigeria.
Kanu always denied the charges and challenged the court’s jurisdiction over him. At the start of the trial he sacked his lawyers but refused to defend himself.
Security around the court in the capital, Abuja, was tightened ahead of the verdict in case of protests by Kanu’s supporters.
Once a relatively obscure figure, he came to national prominence in 2009 when he started Radio Biafra, a station that called for an independent state for the Igbo people, broadcast to Nigeria from London.
Though he grew up in south-eastern Nigeria, where he attended the University of Nsukka, Kanu moved to the UK before graduating, and acquired British nationality.
In 2014, he set up the Indigenous People of Biafra (Ipob), a movement demanding independence.
Ipob was banned as a terrorist organisation in 2017. Its armed wing – the Eastern Security Network – has been accused of killings and other acts of violence in recent years.
Delivering his judgement, Judge James Omotosho said: “Mr Kanu knew what he was doing, he was bent on carrying out these threats without consideration to his own people.
“From the incontroverted evidence, it is clear that the defendant carried out preparatory act of terrorism.
“He had the duty to explain himself but failed to do so.”
Kanu is a popular figure in his movement’s heartland in south-eastern Nigeria, but reaction to the verdict there has so far been muted.
Credit: bbc.com
