News

Amid Mild Drama, Nnamdi Kanu Finally Opens Defence As Court Sets Nov 20 for Judgment

Published

6 months ago

November 8, 2025

Eric

Biafra separatist leader Nnamdi Kanu finally complied with the Federal High Court in Abuja’s order to open his defence in the terrorism charges brought against him by the Federal Government.

Kanu, who had previously resisted proceeding with his defence, began filing his documents on Friday directly in the courtroom, following instructions from Justice James Omotosho.

The judge had earlier directed that the court’s registry be temporarily moved into the courtroom to accommodate Kanu’s complaints and ensure he could complete the filing process without further delay.

Speaking in court, Federal Government counsel Adegboyega Awomolo (SAN) confirmed he was ready to receive Kanu’s defence submissions and respond as required.

While Kanu was still in the process of submitting his documents, Justice Omotosho temporarily adjourned proceedings for an hour to allow the filing to continue uninterrupted.

Before now, Kanu had consistently refused to open his defence, insisting that the prosecution first clarify which specific terrorism law he was alleged to have breached before he could respond.

Justice Omotosho after waiting for Kanu to open his defence, announced adjournment till November 20 for judgment.

The step by step process as witnessed in the court:

Justice James Omotosho stood down the matter after the prosecutor, Adegboyega Awomolo, applied for a stand down to allow Mr Kanu file the document.

The development occurred shortly after the case was called, and Mr Kanu, leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), alleged that officials of the State Security Service (SSS), where he is being detained, did not allow him to file the process in his defence.

“My lord, I don’t know how to say this. I have a process here to file, which has not been allowed for the last three days.

“I have the process for my defence. I don’t know if my lord will allow me to file it for my defence,” he prayed.

Justice Omotosho then sought a response from the SSS officers in court on why Mr Kanu had not been allowed to file the document.

One of the operatives of the security agency stood up and addressed the court.

The officer said after the adjournment on Wednesday, Mr Kanu told them that he wanted to file a process.

“We waited for him (Kanu) and he could not file the process, and we left,” he said.

He said on Thursday, they got information again at the office that Mr Kanu wanted to file the process.

He said if the defendant wants to file a process in court, they have a standard procedure and protocol for Mr Kanu’s movement to guarantee his safety and the safety of others around.

He explained that a letter ought to be written by his former lawyers, who are now consultants, to the SSS management before he could be allowed.

“We only got the information from our officers who are detailed to him. So that creates a logistic problem,” he said.

Also responding, Mr Awomolo said the protocol for Mr Kanu’s movement is dictated by the court’s order.

“However, we will ask for a stand down for about an hour my lord to allow him file the process,” he said.

However, Mr Kanu disagreed with the SSS officer on his submission.

“What he just narrated was not correct,” he said.

“When I was downstairs looking for the process on Wednesday, they (the officers) said let us go and you will be brought back the next day,” he said.

Mr Kanu alleged that he had also told the SSS officers that the court officers could be allowed to bring the stamp for him to depose to the affidavit, but they refused.

Mr Awomolo then said that the issues, as difficult as they seemed, could be made easier by Mr Kanu’s legal consultants.

He said he was not aware that Mr Kanu planned to file a process.

“I was not aware of this. If they (consultants) can talk to me or the Legal Department at the DSS, they are their colleagues, the matter would have been resolved.

“They can speak to them (Legal Department). They (the consultants) equally have my phone number; they can call me,” Mr Awomolo said.

The judge, who stood down the matter, ordered the officers at the court registry and the commissioner for oaths to come into the court with the stamp to attend to Mr Kanu.

“The defendant will file here while we take other matters,” the judge said.

Justice Omotosho further made an order allowing the court workers to go to the SSS office with the court stamp whenever Mr Kanu is a deponent to a document.

Mr Kanu, who was expected to open his defence on Friday, is standing trial on alleged terrorism offences.

BACKGROUND

The Nigerian government has been prosecuting Mr Kanu on seven charges, mostly terrorism-related, since 2015.

The charges stemmed from his alleged violent secessionist campaigns for the independence of the Igbo-dominated South-eastern part of Nigeria as Biafra.

But the dual Nigerian and British citizen has repeatedly denied wrongdoing.

The prosecution closed its case with five witnesses in June.

After the prosecution closed its case, Mr Kanu filed a no-case submission, arguing that the prosecution failed to lead credible evidence against him to warrant putting forward any defence.

However, in September, the judge dismissed the no-case submission, ruling that he had a case to answer and should enter his defence.

Since then, several proceedings have been scheduled for him to start his defence after he suddenly disengaged his lawyers and told the court that he would defend himself.

The case was adjourned several times in the past month to keep the window of defence open, while Mr Kanu continued to maintain that there is no valid charge against him to defend.

He argued that the charges against him “were brought under a repealed terrorism law.”

Following Kanu’s insistence that the charges were invalid, the judge, Mr Omotosho, on Wednesday, reminded him of the need to keep his “gun powder dry” for his defence.

Kanu said he would need to consult with his four legal consultants, whom he named as Nnaemeka Ejiofor, Aloy Ejimakor, Maxwell Okpara and Mandela Umegborogu, after which the case was adjourned to Friday.

As it stands, defence or not, judgment, according to Justice Omotosho, will be delivered on November 20.

News

Gunmen Kill Driver, Abduct Passengers on Benin-Ore Expressway

Published

2 weeks ago

April 20, 2026

Eric

Gunmen suspected to be kidnappers have attacked a commercial bus operated by GUO Transport along the Benn-Ore expressway, killing the driver and abducting several passengers in what underscores Nigeria’s deepening insecurity on major highways.

Reports indicate that the assailants ambushed the South East-bound vehicle, opened fire on the driver, who died at the scene, and subsequently whisked away passengers to an unknown destination.

The incident is believed to have occurred along a notorious stretch of the highway linking the South-West to the South-South, long plagued by banditry and abductions.

While official confirmation from security agencies is expected, local sources and a circulating video showed that passengers might have forcefully been taken into nearby forests, a tactic commonly employed by kidnapping syndicates operating along the corridor. Similar attacks in the past have involved mass abductions, with victims later released after ransom payments.

News

Police Retirees Block Aso Rock Gate, Demand Action on Pension Scheme

Published

2 weeks ago

April 20, 2026

Eric

Some retirees of the Nigeria Police Force under the aegis of the Police Retired Officers Forum of Nigeria (PROF) have staged a protest at the Presidential Villa in Abuja demanding President Bola Tinubu sign the Police Exit Bill passed by the National Assembly in December 2025.

The bill seeks to withdraw the Nigeria Police Force from the Contributory Pension Scheme.

The protesters, under the scorching sun, walked from the Three Arms Zone in Abuja through the street in front of the Police Headquarters.

They carried placards with various inscriptions, in addition to the Nigerian flag and the flag of the Nigeria Police Force.

Led by its National Coordinator, CSP Raphael Irowainu, the protesters described the retention of the NPF in the Contributory Pension Scheme as fraudulent and illegal.

They also said the CPS is inhumane and obnoxious.

According to them, the protest seeks to prevail on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to give assent to the Police Exit Bill passed by the National Assembly on 4th December 2025 and transmitted to the President on 16th March 2026.

They said that when signed into law, the Act will totally exempt the police from what they called a “slavery and untimely death-inducing pension scheme.”

The protesters, accompanied by some of their spouses and children, also blocked Gate 8 leading into the Presidential Villa, causing obstruction to vehicular movement.

Efforts by Villa security personnel to dissuade them from the protest proved abortive as they insisted on seeing the President.

They laid their mats in front of the gate, singing songs of solidarity, while some of them lay on the floor.

As of the time of filing this report, no one from the Villa had addressed the protesters.

CSP Irowainu said that their main purpose is to prevail on President Tinubu to sign the bill exiting the Nigeria Police Force from the CPS, which he said has been passed and transmitted to him by the National Assembly.

He lamented that while other security agencies in the country such as the Army, Navy, Air Force, SSS and others have all been exited from the scheme, the police remain trapped in it.

“Our major aim here is to prevail on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to sign our bill—the bill exiting the police from the Contributory Pension Scheme—passed by the National Assembly on 4th December 2025 and transmitted to him on 16th March, 2026, into law, nothing more than that.

“The soldiers have been exited, the SSS has been exited, the Air Force has been exited, the Navy has been exited, the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) has been exited. The police, who are the father of them all, are trapped in this obnoxious Contributory Pension Scheme,” CSP Irowainu said.

It is not the first time retired officers are staging a protest over the CPS. In July last year, they demonstrated at the National Assembly to demand their removal from the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS).

The demonstrators, mostly elderly, stood in the rain holding placards and chanting anti-government songs.

Some of the retired police officers also besieged the Force Headquarters in Abuja to protest against the CPS.

Addressing the protesters at the time, the then Inspector General of Police, IGP Kayode Egbetokun, said the welfare of retired police officers was being addressed, but that the exit of the Force from the Contributory Pension Scheme was not something that could be implemented immediately.

He, however, advised the leaders of the protest to refrain from spreading misinformation, stressing that the Force could not abandon its own.

News

IGP Disu Orders Ban on Illegal Checkpoints Nationwide

Published

3 weeks ago

April 13, 2026

Eric

The Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Olatunji Disu, has issued a sweeping directive to Commissioners of Police nationwide, ordering an immediate end to extortion, illegal checkpoints, harassment of citizens and other misconducts.

He declared that restoring public confidence in the Nigeria Police Force is now a top operational priority.

The order was contained in a signal to members of the police management team including Commissioners of Police (CP) and other operational commanders.

In the marching order, the IGP acknowledged the deep mistrust many Nigerians feel toward officers, describing it as “painful” and unacceptable.

He said citizens now fear encounters with the police as much as they fear criminals, warning that such a reputation cannot continue under his leadership.

According to him, the directive marks the beginning of a determined effort to rebuild discipline within the police and re-establish its legitimacy in the eyes of the public.

The order specifically outlawed the routine collection of money from motorists on highways, the operation of unauthorised checkpoints, and the practice of arresting citizens and forcing them to withdraw cash from Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) or Point of Sale (PoS) devices.

The IGP also condemned the use of officers for private duties in homes and businesses, describing such deployments as abuse of authority and a violation of existing presidential directives on VIP protection.

Officers were further directed to comply strictly with approved dress codes, remain clean-shaven and adhere to established uniform regulations.

The police boss warned that harassment of citizens in any form would no longer be tolerated, stressing that the Nigerian public is not the enemy of the Force but the reason for its existence. At the same time, he assured officers that the institution would equally defend them against intimidation or disrespect from members of the public, noting that the dignity of the uniform must be protected on both sides.

Holding command leaders directly accountable, the IGP said Commissioners of Police would henceforth be responsible for misconduct within their jurisdictions.

He ordered them to demonstrate measurable improvements in discipline within seven days or face formal queries and possible transfers where lapses persist.

He emphasised that supervisory failure would no longer be ignored at any level of leadership. To ensure compliance, the directive introduced new oversight measures, including independent monitoring of field operations and public reporting channels through which citizens can lodge complaints directly with Force Headquarters.

A Citizens Commendation System will also be established to recognise officers who demonstrate professionalism, with monthly honours to be drawn from public nominations across commands.

Describing the directive as a decisive turning point, the police chief said Nigerians have grown weary of promises and now expect visible change. He ordered all commanders to brief personnel under their authority within 72 hours and confirm compliance in writing, declaring that the process of cleaning up the Force has begun and will be sustained until public trust is restored.