On Friday, the Supreme Court declined to grant Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), permission to be released from custody.In a ruling authored by Justice Garba Lawal but delivered by Justice Emmanuel Agim, the Supreme Court nullified and set aside the Court of Appeal's October 2018 ruling ordering Kanu's freedom and quashing the terrorist accusations against him.
The Nigerian government illegally and carelessly removed Kanu from Kenya, but it did not stop any court from moving forward with a trial, according to the Supreme Court.
Judge Lawal stated that although no Nigerian law was referenced in the lawsuit demanding Kanu's release on the grounds of his alleged unlawful kidnapping from Kenya, the current course of action for such an action is for Kanu to file a civil matter against such an act rather than withdrawing the courts' ability to continue his trial for criminal charges.
Subsequently, the Apex Court mandated that Kanu go and defend himself against the remaining seven allegations of terrorism against him.
Kanu was charged with four counts of treasonable felony, conspiracy to commit treasonable felony, terrorism, unlawful importation of radio equipment, and defamation of former President Muhammadu Buhari. The charges were brought before Justice Binta Nyako of the Federal High Court in Abuja.
Later, the Nigerian government changed the charges to include 15 counts of terrorism and belonging to a banned organization.
In her decision, Justice Nyako dismissed eight of the fifteen counts, stating that Kanu still needed to respond to concerns about the remaining seven counts.
Kanu appealed to the court of appeals because he was unhappy with the decision; the court dismissed the remaining charges and granted Mr. Kanu's release.
The federal government subsequently informed the court that it will file an appeal with the Supreme Court, and the court issued a stay of implementation of its verdict.
Kanu was contesting the stay of execution issued by the appeals court, which prevented him from being released while the government was contesting the decision of the appeals court to drop the last of the accusations against the IPOB leader.