The Federal Excessive Courtroom in Abuja, on Tuesday, struck out an software filed by the convicted chief of the Indigenous Individuals of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu, searching for his switch from the jail in Sokoto State.
The court docket, in a ruling that was delivered by Justice James Omotosho, held that the appliance was incompetent.
Kanu, who was sentenced to life imprisonment by the court docket on November 20, 2025, contended in a movement that he personally signed that his detention within the Sokoto Custodial Middle would hamper his skill to successfully attraction his conviction.
Within the eight grounds he raised in assist of the movement ex parte marked FHC/ABJ/CR/383/2015, the embattled IPOB chief famous that the court docket, after discovering him responsible of the seven-count terrorism cost most popular towards him by the Federal Authorities, sentenced him to life imprisonment in any correctional facility within the nation besides Kuje Correctional Centre, Abuja.
“That on the twenty first of November, 2025, the applicant was transferred to and is presently detained on the Sokoto Correctional Facility, which is over 700 kilometres from Abuja.
“The applicant, who’s presently unrepresented by counsel, intends to personally train his constitutional proper of attraction towards the conviction and sentence.
“The preparation of the discover of attraction and the report of attraction requires the applicant’s private interface with the registry of this honourable court docket and the Courtroom of Attraction in Abuja.
“All individuals crucial to aiding the applicant in making ready his attraction, together with his relations, associates, and authorized consultants, are primarily based in Abuja.
“The Applicant’s continued detention in Sokoto renders his constitutional proper to attraction impracticable, occasioning distinctive hardship and doubtlessly defeating the stated proper, in violation of Part 36 of the Structure of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended),” he added.
Kanu maintained that it will be within the curiosity of justice for him to be transferred to a facility close to Abuja to allow him to successfully prosecute his attraction.
Consequently, he prayed the court docket for an order to compel the federal authorities and/or the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS) to forthwith switch him from the Sokoto Correctional Facility to a custodial facility inside the jurisdiction of this Honourable Courtroom.
Within the different, he sought an order transferring him to the court docket’s “instant environs, such because the Suleja or the Keffi Custodial Centre, for the aim of enabling the applicant to successfully prosecute his constitutionally assured proper of attraction.”
The court docket had, on December 4, 2025, declined to listen to the movement on the premise that Kanu’s youthful brother, Prince Emmanuel, who sought to maneuver it, is just not a authorized practitioner.
Consequently, on December 8, 2025, when the matter got here up, a lawyer from the Authorized Support Council of Nigeria, LACoN, Demdoo Asan, appeared on behalf of the detained IPOB chief.
The court docket subsequently slated the matter for listening to, even because it ordered service of the processes on each the FG and the jail authority.
In the meantime, on the resumed proceedings on Tuesday, the lawyer from the LACoN, Asan, introduced his choice to withdraw from the case, citing irreconcilable variations with the applicant.
Asan additional instructed the court docket that regardless of his repeated efforts, none of Kanu’s relations confirmed as much as depose to an affidavit in assist of the jail switch request.
“My lord, from the eighth of December until in the present day, I’ve been in cellphone conversations with Kanu’s relations for considered one of them to return to our workplace to depose to the affidavit, however they haven’t proven up,” the federal government lawyer lamented.
In addition to, he accused Kanu of trying to dictate to him how the case ought to be performed, a growth he stated was incompatible together with his duties as an officer of the court docket.
“The applicant desires to dictate the tune of the matter. He desires to put in writing what I’ll say whereas in court docket.
“Nevertheless, I can not do this as an officer of the court docket,” Asan added, saying that after consulting his superiors, he had determined it was not proper for a defendant to dictate how a lawyer ought to conduct a case in court docket.
Invoking Order 50 Rule 1 of the Federal Excessive Courtroom Guidelines, the lawyer formally withdrew from the matter.
In a ruling, Justice Omotosho acceded to Asan’s request to drag out of the case.
“When the matter was introduced, it was an incompetent go well with. Nevertheless, within the curiosity of justice, I ordered that events be served, however this has not been performed,” Justice Omotosho defined earlier than he struck out the movement.