The Court of Appeal in Abuja has dismissed a fundamental rights appeal filed by the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, declaring that the case has become “academic” following his conviction for terrorism and sentence of life imprisonment.
In the appeal, Kanu had accused the Nigerian authorities of gross human rights violations, including illegal arrest, extraordinary rendition, torture and prolonged detention without adequate access to his lawyers. The Director General of the Department of State Services (DSS) and the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) were listed as respondents, with Kanu asking the appellate court to overturn an earlier decision of the Federal High Court that refused to grant him reliefs on those claims.
Delivering the lead judgment on Friday, Justice Boloukuromo Ugo, who headed the three‑member panel, held that the matter could no longer confer any practical benefit on the appellant in light of his subsequent conviction and sentencing by the Federal High Court in Abuja. The court ruled that the issues raised in the appeal had become merely theoretical and, therefore, amounted to an academic exercise.
Justice Ugo observed that Kanu’s own counsel, Maxwell Opara, had confirmed to the court that his client is now being held at the Sokoto Correctional Centre, where he is serving his life sentence. On that basis, the judge held that the appellate court could not grant Kanu’s request for an order remanding him in Kuje Correctional Centre from DSS custody, since he was no longer in DSS detention but already in a conventional prison facility.
The court further noted that Kanu had previously insisted on being kept in a regular correctional facility instead of DSS custody, stressing that his current place of detention aligns with the preference he had earlier expressed. With that reasoning, the panel struck out the appeal for lacking merit and for having no live issue left to be determined, effectively closing another legal avenue Kanu had pursued to challenge what he described as violations of his constitutional rights.
This latest ruling comes barely a week after Justice James Omotosho of the Federal High Court in Abuja convicted Kanu on a seven‑count terrorism charge and sentenced him to life imprisonment, holding that federal prosecutors had proved their case beyond reasonable doubt. Prior to that conviction, Kanu had filed the fundamental rights enforcement suit at the Federal High Court, alleging that state agents unlawfully abducted him, subjected him to inhuman treatment and denied him fair access to his lawyers and family members. That suit was dismissed on 3 July by Justice Taiwo Taiwo, prompting the appeal now struck out by the Court of Appeal.
With Friday’s decision, Kanu’s attempt to secure judicial pronouncements on his alleged rights violations has suffered yet another setback, even as his legal team continues to explore other channels to challenge both the terrorism conviction and the manner in which he was brought back and held in Nigeria.
