By SCM Judiciary Correspondent, ABUJA
ABUJA, Nigeria – SEPARATIST and Biafra leader Nnamdi Kanu has been locked up for LIFE after a furious Nigerian judge slammed the door shut on his dream of creating a breakaway Biafra nation.
The boss of the banned Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) terror group was caged for life after being convicted on multiple counts of terrorism by a Federal High Court in Abuja.
Justice James Omotosho, presiding over the dramatic case that has dragged on for a decade, sentenced Kanu to life imprisonment for key charges including terrorism offences.
The judge, who branded the warlord “cocky and arrogant” for showing “no remorse,” revealed he chose mercy over the death penalty, stating, “Life is sacred to God.”
In a stunning courtroom moment, Justice Omotosho cited the Bible, saying he was “moved by Chapter 23:22 and 23” of the Book of Matthew to temper justice with compassion.
“The court is minded to sentence the convict to death… Instead of the death sentence, life is sacred to God,” the judge declared.
Kanu, who has been in custody since his “extraordinary rendition” from Kenya in 2021, was found guilty on all seven charges brought by Nigeria’s Department of State Services (DSS).
The charges related to his reckless broadcasts and interviews where he was quoted as saying, “The only language people in the zoo (Nigeria) understand is violence and will be given to them.”
He also boasted to a US Igbo World Congress: “There will be a blood boom. America will give us guns and bullets. We are ready to perish unless they give us Biafra.”
The court heard that his inflammatory rhetoric led to the deaths of more than 75 security personnel and countless innocent Nigerians, as well as the destruction of police stations.
Despite the gravity of the charges, Kanu remained defiant and “unruly” throughout the trial, refusing to enter a defence and sacking his own legal team days before the ruling.
On Thursday, he was so disruptive he had to be removed from the courtroom after accusing the judge of bias and shouting that he “did not know the law.”
In addition to the life sentence, Kanu was hit with a 20-year term for belonging to a proscribed terrorist group and five years for unlawfully importing a radio transmitter to run his clandestine Radio Biafra.
The judge ordered that the transmitter be forfeited to the Federal Government and that Kanu be held in protective custody outside the notorious Kuje prison.
Defence lawyer Obi Aguocha pleaded for clemency for the warlord, but Prosecutor Adegboyega Awomolo (SAN) insisted the maximum punishment was needed “to serve justice to all the victims of his acts of terrorism.”
