The Federal High Court in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital city, has announced that it will deliver its long-anticipated judgment on the terrorism-related charges against Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the Indigenous People Of Biafra movement, through a nationwide live television broadcast on Thursday.
According to the court registrar, who confirmed the development to the News Agency Of Nigeria on Thursday morning, the decision to allow live coverage ensures that the public has real-time access to proceedings surrounding one of the most high-profile cases in Nigeria’s recent judicial history. Okay News reports that media professionals from several major national broadcast networks, including Nigerian Television Authority, Channels Television, Africa Independent Television, and Television Continental, had already set up their cameras and technical equipment inside the courtroom ahead of the ruling.
The live transmission arrangement comes after Justice James Omotosho, the presiding judge, fixed November 20 as the date for the judgment. The decision was taken on November 7 after Nnamdi Kanu’s defence team was foreclosed when the defendant insisted he would not enter his defence under what he described as a repealed legal framework.
Justice James Omotosho reiterated that Nnamdi Kanu had been granted six full days by the court to present his defence and had exhausted those days without taking the opportunity. According to the judge, although he would have extended the days allocated to Nnamdi Kanu if the defendant had agreed to open his defence, the refusal to utilise the window resulted in a forfeiture of that right.
He emphasised that Nnamdi Kanu could therefore not claim that the court denied him the constitutional guarantee of a fair hearing, since he was given ample opportunity to defend himself but chose otherwise.
