The Supreme Court has fixed December 15 to deliver judgment on appeals regarding the continued detention of Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the proscribed Indigenous People Of Biafra (IPOB).
A five-member panel of the apex court led by Kudirat Kekere-Ekun set the date for judgment.
This was after counsels for the federal government and Kanu adopted their final arguments.
Nnamdi Kanu has been in the custody of the Department of State Services (DSS) since he was extradited from Kenya on June 19, 2021.
The federal government filed terrorism charges against him.
On April 8, 2022, a federal high court judge in Abuja, Binta Nyako, struck out eight of the 15 counts in the charge.
The remaining seven counts were later quashed by the court of appeal on October 13, 2022, with the judge ordering Kanu’s release.
Stay of Execution
However, on October 28, 2022, the court of appeal granted a stay of execution on its verdict discharging Kanu, after the federal government filed an appeal at the Supreme Court.
Kanu subsequently appealed the order staying execution.
During proceedings on Thursday, Mike Ozekhome, Kanu’s lawyer, prayed the court to order the immediate release of his client from detention. He urged the court to award “very heavy and punitive cost” against the federal government.
“We urge my lords to uphold our cross-appeal in order to do substantial justice to this matter and to the respondent who has been in detention since June 29, 2021, even after the lower court ordered his release and that he should never be prosecuted again on the same counts,” Ozekhome said.
“They are still holding him unconstitutionally. We pray my lords to deliver justice and use this case, just like in Ojukwu vs. State, to demonstrate that no man or government should be above the law.”
In contrast, Tijjani Gazzali, the federal government’s counsel, requested the court to overturn the judgment of the court of appeal that ordered Kanu’s release.
He urged the court to direct the resumption of Kanu’s trial before the federal high court in Abuja on terrorism-related charges.