Abuja division of Court of Appeal has reserved judgment on the appeal filed by detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.
The IPOB leader is seeking dismissal of the remaining seven-count charge filed against him by the federal government.
When the appeal came up for hearing, Kanu’s lawyer, Chief Mike Ozekhome told the Justice Hanatu Jumai Sankey-led three-man panel that the appeal was predicated on a notice of appeal dated 29 April, 2022, while the brief of argument was dated June 20, 2022.
He said the respondent filed its reply brief of argument dated July 29, but filed on August 3.
The appellant filed a reply brief on 25 August 2022, but deemed consequentially filed yesterday, September 13.
Ozekhome adopted his processes, and urged the panel to grant the appeal as “one of substance and merit”.
Ozekhome told the court that the appellant was first arraigned on 23 December 2015, and granted bail on 25 April 2017.
He argued that agents of the federal government (the respondent) had launched a military operation, code-named “Operation Python Dance ” at the appellant’s home town in September 2017, which forced him to escape out of the country, to Israel, then London.
The senior advocate recalled that on 27 June 2021, “the federal government forcefully arrested Kanu in Kenya and brought him back to Nigeria “in the most cruel and inhuman manner”.
“On 29 June, 2021, the appellant was taken to court by the federal government, where he was re-arraigned.
“Following the appellant’s preliminary objection to the 15-count charge preferred against him by the FG, the trial judge, Justice Binta Nyako of the Federal High Court in Abuja, on 8 April 2022, struck out 8 counts.
“Our humble submission is that the remaining seven counts ought not to be restrained by the trial court because, before the time Kanu was renditioned to Nigeria from Kenya, he was facing a five-count charge,” he said.
Reacting, the FG’s lawyer, Kaswe, asked the court to dismiss the appeal for lacking in merit.