Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), a group that has been proscribed, has requested the Supreme Court to order the Federal Government to release him in accordance with the Court of Appeal’s October 13 ruling that did so.
In a cross-appeal he filed in the Federal Government’s appeal against the Appeal Court’s ruling releasing Kanu on October 13, Kanu makes his request.
The IPOB leader is contesting several of the October 13 judgment’s findings in the three-ground notice of cross appeal.
Kanu is praying the Supreme Court to set aside the Appeal Court’s judgment as it relates to issues two, three and five formulated before the court,
He is also praying the apex court to direct the FG to release him from the custody of the State Security Service (SSS) where he has been since June 26, this year when he was brought back to Nigeria.
In ground one, he argued that the Appeal Court erred in law when it held that “the main purpose of a charge is to give the accused person a notice of the case against him and that is why the law is that an omission in a charge will only be fatal if it does not put an accused person on proper and sufficient notice of the case against him to enable him prepare adequately for his defence,” without due deference to the mandatory requirements of the laws which limit the criminal jurisdiction of the Federal High Court only to criminal offences committed within the jurisdiction of the court.
He contended , in ground two, that the Appeal Court erred in law when it held that “as long as the appeal against the proscription of IPOB has not been determined, the order of proscription is still valid and subsisting,” and thereby occasioned a miscarriage of justice.
In ground three, Kanu argued that the Court of Appeal “erred in law when it held that it is only when evidence has been adduced by the prosecution in proof of its case and the proof of evidence is thus admitted in evidence, that the competency or otherwise of the proof of evidence/charge, can be attacked; and that as such, it was premature to make pronouncement on the relative strength of proof of evidence before the commencement of trial, and thereby occasioned a miscarriage of justice.”
In addition, Kanu has also filed notice of appeal praying the apex court to reverse the October 28 ruling by the Court of Appeal, staying the execution of its October 13 judgment.