The detained Biafra nation agitator, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, has asked the Court of Appeal in Abuja to stop the Federal High Court from delivering judgment in the terrorism charges brought against him by the federal government.
Judgment in the terrorism charges filed since 2015 has been scheduled for delivery on November 20 by Justice James Kolawole Omotosho of the Federal High Court in Abuja.
However, Kanu, in a fresh motion on notice he has just filed, is praying the Court of Appeal to stop the High Court from further proceeding in the charges against him.
His new motion was predicated on the ground that he had filed a notice of appeal against the September 26 ruling of Justice Omotosho, which dismissed his no-case submission and ordered him to defend the terrorism allegations against him.
Kanu, the self-acclaimed leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), is contending that the Federal High Court was wrong in dismissing his no-case submission without going through the jurisdictional and validity issues of the charges he raised.
Among others, he argued that the lower court was wrong in upholding the charges because the Terrorism Prevention and Prohibition Act had been repealed and therefore there were no valid charges against him.
He also held that the constitutional issue of jurisdiction was not addressed by the judge in the considered ruling on his no-case submission.
The ground of the motion was that Justice Omotosho did not evaluate the evidence of the prosecution witnesses and the cross-examination to determine whether the adduced evidence had been discredited.
“That he sought to call 23 witnesses only when the issue of jurisdiction had been determined, but which the court refused to allow, stating that such would be done in the final judgment.
“That the judge foreclosed his right to defend himself from the charges while refusing to rule on his objections to the validity of some of the counts in the charges.”
Kanu said that if his request to stop the judgment delivery is not granted by the Court of Appeal, he may be unlawfully convicted and sentenced to jail.
He further feared that if the November 20 judgment is delivered, his appeal against the no-case submission would become a mere academic exercise, and a fait accompli would therefore be foisted on the Court of Appeal.
The Biafra nation agitator submitted that neither he nor the Federal High Court would be prejudiced if the application is granted.
In a 13-paragraph affidavit in support of the motion, Kanu raised the issue of disobedience to the Supreme Court order on the validity of count 7 in the charges against him and the failure to apply the mandatory test under section 303 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act 2015 (ACJA).
According to him, the Supreme Court made it clear that count 7 was no longer an offence in Nigeria, having been allegedly repealed.
In the affidavit he personally deposed to, he said that his pending appeal against the no-case submission raised substantial, recondite, and constitutional issues of law.
He specifically averred that counts 1 to 6 in the charges against him were predicated on a repealed statute, hence no valid charges against him.
Meanwhile, no date has been fixed for the hearing of the motion on notice by the Court of Appeal.
