Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the outlawed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), has accused the Nigerian government of planning to “illegally detain him indefinitely” at the facility of the State Security Service (SSS) in Abuja.
His lawyer, Ifeanyi Ejiofor in a statement, said Mr Kanu disclosed this on Monday when the IPOB leader’s legal team visited him at the SSS facility.
Mr Kanu was first arrested in 2015 under the administration of former Nigerian President, Muhammadu Buhari.
The IPOB leader was later granted bail in April 2017. He fled the country after an invasion of his home in Afara-Ukwu, near Umuahia, Abia State, by the Nigerian military in September of that year.
He was re-arrested in Kenya and brought back to Nigeria in June 2021, about four years after he fled the country.
The Court of Appeal, Abuja, on 13 October 2022, held that the IPOB leader was extra-ordinarily renditioned to Nigeria and that the action was a flagrant violation of the country’s extradition treaty and also a breach of his fundamental human rights.
The court, therefore, struck out the terrorism charges filed against Mr Kanu by the Nigerian government and ordered his release from the SSS facility.
But the government refused to release the IPOB leader insisting that he (Kanu) could be unavailable in subsequent court proceedings if released and that his release would cause insecurity in the South-east, where he comes from.
The government, through the attorney-general of the federation, later appealed the court ruling and subsequently obtained an order staying its execution at the Supreme Court.
Mr Kanu, on 3 November 2022, through one of his lawyers, Mike Ozekhome, filed an appeal against the stay of execution order at the Supreme Court.
But the court is yet to resume hearing on the appeal following repeated adjournments.
Mr Ejiofor in the statement on Monday said the legal team informed Mr Kanu that the hearing on his appeal against the stay of execution order earlier billed to hold on 14 September had again been cancelled.
Mr Kanu, according to the statement, wondered why the Nigerian government would be afraid of the court hearing which it initiated.
The lawyer quoted Mr Kanu as saying that he “strongly believes that the Federal government’s appeal against the judgment of the Court of Appeal which discharged him and prohibited his further trial and detention, will not be heard, because the Federal government intends to illegally detain him indefinitely.”
