The IPOB leader, Nnamdi Kanu, appealed at the Supreme Court against the 28 October decision of the Court of Appeal in Abuja which stayed the execution of its earlier order issued for his acquittal and release from custody.
Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), has filed an appeal at the Supreme Court against the recent Court of Appeal’s ruling halting his release from custody.
He appealed against the 28 October decision of the Court of Appeal in Abuja which stayed the execution of its earlier order acquitting him of all charges and directing his release from custody.
A three-member panel of the Court of Appeal in Abuja, on 28 October, stayed the execution of its earlier judgement freeing Mr Kanu of terrorism and treasonable felony charges.
Mr Kanu has been in the custody of the State Security Service (SSS) since he was arrested in Kenya and brought back to Nigeria in June last year.
The appellate court had on 13 October ordered the IPOB leader’s release, having dismissed the remaining six-count charge levelled against him by the federal government.
The federal government had asked the Court of Appeal to stay the execution of the judgment freeing Mr Kanu, pending the resolution of an appeal it filed at the Supreme Court.
Haruna Tsammani, who led the appellate court panel in a ruling, held that the counter-affidavit filed against the federal government’s application by Mr Kanu’s legal team was “misleading.”
Dissatisfied with the court’s ruling, Mr Kanu’s lead counsel, Mike Ozekhome, filed an appeal predicated on three grounds at the apex court.
Prayers
In the appeal dated 3 November, the IPOB leader sought an order of the Supreme Court setting aside the decision of the Court of Appeal made on 28 October.
In addition, Mr Kanu asked the Supreme Court to restore the execution of the appellate court’s verdict of 13 October, freeing the IPOB leader.
In another ground of appeal, Mr Kanu argued that the Court of Appeal erred in law when it heard and determined an application for a stay of execution of its judgment in a criminal suit.
In ground two, the IPOB leader contended that the appellate court erred when it failed to evaluate the evidence led by his legal team.
“The court below failed to properly evaluate and ascribe proper evidential or probative value to the Appellant’s counter-affidavit filed on the 21st day of October 2022, Kanu stated.”
“That by staying execution of a judgment that was essentially declaratory, the lower court which ought to defend the integrity of the judicial process literally overruled itself and vacated its own judgement even before the apex court has heard it” Mr Ozekhome argued.
The Court of Appeal in its decision of 13 October, held that Mr Kanu’s forcible extradition from Kenya to Nigeria in June last year was in violation of both local and international laws.
Consequently, the court dismissed the terrorism charges filed against Mr Kanu before Binta Nyako of the Federal High Court in Abuja.
Mr Kanu has remained in the custody of the State Security Service (SSS) since his return to Nigeria.