The counsel to Nnamdi Kanu, Aloy Ejimakor, says he will challenge the life sentences given to the IPOB leader by the Federal High Court in Abuja.
On Thursday, Justice James Omotosho sentenced Kanu to life imprisonment on four terrorism counts, alongside additional sentences of 20 years and five years on other counts, all to run concurrently.
Speaking shortly after the ruling, Ejimakor said they will head to the Court of Appeal to review the judgment.
“We are heading to the Court of Appeal. The Court of Appeal is the only court in this country that sits as a jury. We will ask the justices to check what happened today,”
He called the judgment “a symbol of the travesty of justice that everybody has suspected,” insisting that Kanu’s conviction had no legal basis. According to him, “today is the only day I have seen a man convicted for what he said, not what he did.”
Ejimakor argued that the sentence was excessive and unfair, questioning how a broadcast from an unnamed location could result in a terrorism conviction. “He never tied that broadcast to any violence, not even someone slapping someone,” he said.
Justice Omotosho earlier ruled that the death penalty was inappropriate and ordered a life sentence instead. Ejimakor maintained that the decision “cannot be grounded in logic” and vowed that Kanu “will not stand convicted.”
