The terrorism trial of Nnamdi Kanu, a separatist campaigning for the secession of Biafra from Nigeria, kicked off on Tuesday at the Federal High Court in Abuja, with the first prosecution witness testifying on the defendant’s unflinching stance on the self-determination agitation.
Earlier on Tuesday, PREMIUM TIMES reported how trial judge James Omotosho granted the prosecution team permission to shield the identities of witnesses lined up to testify against Mr Kanu, leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).
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The case, featuring terrorism and treasonable felony charges, was originally instituted in 2015 following Mr Kanu’s arrest in Lagos.
Major setbacks have held the case down for almost a decade, making it impossible for the prosecution to call witnesses and present exhibits until Tuesday.
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The case started with four people initially charged as Mr Kanu’s co-defendants. However, in February 2018, the then-trial judge Binta Nyako severed the trial, separating Mr Kanu—who had fled Nigeria—from the other defendants. The trial severance allowed the prosecution to continue proceedings against the four remaining co-defendants.
The Nigerian government would re-arrest Mr Kanu in Kenya in June 2021.
But despite the re-arrest and his subsequent detention in the State Security Service (SSS) custody in Abuja since then, the case had been unable to proceed to trial.
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Witness testifies on Kanu’s arrest
At the opening of the trial on Tuesday, an SSS operative, code-named PWAAA in line with the judge’s earlier decision permitting the prosecution to shield the identities of their witnesses, testified on the arrest of Mr Kanu in 2015 and his stance on the Biafra agitation.
Led in evidence by the prosecution lawyer, Adegboyega Awomolo, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), the witness said Mr Kanu’s arrest was based on intelligence.
“Acting on intelligence, we deployed an eight-man team to a hotel in Ikeja, Lagos on 15 October 2015 where Kanu was arrested during a room-to-room search,” the witness said.
He added that the security men “opted for room-to-room search because Kanu’s name was not on the hotel manifest, adding that it was upon his arrest that they discovered he used his native name to secure the hotel accommodation.”
The witness disclosed that several items including IPOB pamphlets, IPOB complementary cards, laptops, iPads, microphones, microphone stand, flash drives, power adaptor for mixers, various brands of phones, perfumes, ATM cards, a wrist watch, among others, were recovered in Mr Kanu’s hotel room and recorded.
The items brought to court by the SSS in four suitcases were displayed in the open court and admitted as exhibits without objection from Mr Kanu’s defence team.
Witness testifies on Kanu’s Biafra agitation
The witness told the court that the interrogation of Mr Kanu was video recorded. The clip of the interrogation session was played in the open court and admitted as exhibits along with his written statement.
In his written statement read in the open court by the witness, Mr Kanu admitted fighting for emancipation of his people and that the call for self-determination was his fundamental right and not a crime.
He insisted that his fight for the emancipation of the South-east, South-south and parts of Benue and Kogi states is his fundamental right and not terrorism as alleged by the federal government.
In the statement which he wrote down for the SSS on 15 October 2015, Mr Kanu made it clear that freedom fighting is not a crime in any part of the world, including Nigeria, because it is a fundamental right and cited some laws in the statement.
He also said he wrote the statement without his lawyers present as required by law.
Mr Kanu admitted in the statement and video clip that he established and operated Radio Biafra in London where it was registered.
He admitted not registering the radio station with the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) in Nigeria. He said he believed there was no need to register it with the NBC having not been established in Nigeria.
Concluding his evidence, the witness told the court that Mr Kanu admitted to SSS to be founder and the leader of IPOB, which would be proscribed by the federal government with court validation as an unlawful organisation in August 2017.
Meanwhile, trial judge, Mr Omotosho fixed 2 May 2025 for cross-examination of the witness.
Kanu’s re-arraignment
The IPOB leader faces treasonable felony and terrorism charges, which stemmed from his separatist agitation for the secession of Nigeria’s five Igbo-dominated South-east states and parts of the neighbouring states as a sovereign Biafra nation.
He was re-arraigned before Mr Omotosho in March, following his protest forcing the former trial judge, Binta Nyako, who had been handling the case since 2016, to recuse herself from the case.
But shortly before the charges were read to him before Mr Omotosho, he apologised for outburst outbursts against Mrs Nyako while protesting against her handling of the case.
It was the first time the matter would come up in Mr Omotosho’s court. Mr Kanu pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Before pleading to charges, Mr Kanu passionately asked for forgiveness of the former judge and promised to be of good conduct throughout the duration of his trial.
Mr Kanu’s apology was contained in a lengthy prepared speech delivered by his new lawyer, Mr Agabi, who was appearing for him for the first time that day.
In the emotion-laden address, Mr Kanu specifically apologised to Mrs Nyako and Mr Awomolo, urging them to forgive and forget his outburst and attacks against them.
Back and forth for almost 10 years
Biafra agitation, when first enacted in the 1960s, led to the Civil War that raged between 1967 and 1970 within the first decade of Nigeria’s Independence.
Mr Kanu took the baton for the Biafra agitation and escalated it in 2015, asserting that he and his people have the right to self-determination.
The Nigerian government arrested and charged him in 2015, as it increasingly became uncomfortable with Mr Kanu’s separatist campaigns through then-Radio Biafra.
In its early years, the case had to start afresh on two occasions as it passed from one judge to the other, driven by Mr Kanu’s allegation of bias against each of the judges.
Then the case totally stalled in 2017 following Mr Kanu’s escape from Nigeria in the wake of soldiers’ invasion of his home in Afara-Ukwu, near Umuahia in Abia State, while he was on bail.
The Nigerian government forcibly brought him back to the country after arresting him in Kenya in June 2021 to continue his trial.
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But instead of making progress, the case has journeyed the hierarchy of the Nigerian court system over preliminary disputes, which the Supreme Court finally resolved in December 2023 and ordered the Federal High Court to proceed with the trial.
The proceedings continued at the trial court as ordered by the Supreme Court but almost immediately ran into the hurdles of another round of preliminary applications, including bail applications filed by Mr Kanu, which were rejected by the trial judge.
The stalemate continued until Mr Kanu’s outburst forced the trial judge, Mrs Nyako, to withdraw from the case in September last year.
Chief Judge John Tsoho then reassigned the case to Mr Omotosho, prompting Mr Kanu’s re-arraignment before him in March. The re-arraignment paved the way for the prosecution to call its first witness on Tuesday.
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