Nnamdi Kanu, the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), a separatist group that campaigns for an independent Biafra in southeastern Nigeria, has filed a notice of appeal to challenge his conviction and the prison sentences handed to him by the Federal High Court in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital.
In the appeal notice dated Wednesday, 4 February 2026, Kanu said he is contesting his conviction and sentencing on seven counts linked to terrorism-related offences. He was found guilty on Thursday, 20 November 2025 and sentenced to five life terms, along with additional jail terms for other counts.
Kanu was convicted for offences that included committing acts said to be preparatory to or carried out in support of terrorism, making a broadcast with the intention of intimidating the public, and being a leader and member of IPOB, which Nigeria’s authorities have declared a banned organisation.
According to the judgment delivered by Justice James Omotosho of the Federal High Court in Abuja, Kanu was sentenced to five life terms for the terrorism-related counts. The court also imposed a 20-year prison term for being the leader of the banned IPOB, and five years in prison without an option of fine for importing a radio transmitter without a licence. Okay News reports that Kanu is asking the appellate court to overturn all the convictions and sentences.
In his grounds of appeal, Kanu argued that the trial court failed to address what he described as a major disruption of the original trial process following a military operation at his Afara-Ukwu residence in Umuahia, the capital of Abia State in southeastern Nigeria, in September 2017. He said the judge did not properly resolve the legal and procedural impact of that development before continuing with the case.
He also claimed the court went ahead with the trial and later delivered judgment while his preliminary objection challenging the competence of the proceedings was still pending and had not been ruled on. Kanu further complained that judgment was delivered while his bail application remained undecided, which he said affected the fairness of the process.
Another key argument in the appeal is that he was convicted under a law he said was no longer in force. He argued that the Terrorism Prevention (Amendment) Act, 2013 had been repealed and replaced by the Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022 before judgment was delivered, and that the court should not have sentenced him under the older law.
Kanu also alleged he faced double jeopardy, which is prohibited under Section 36(9) of Nigeria’s 1999 Constitution, because he said he was retried on facts that had earlier been nullified by the Court of Appeal, Nigeria’s intermediate appellate court. He added that he was denied fair hearing because he said he was not allowed to file or present a final written address before the judgment was read.
Among the reliefs he is seeking, Kanu asked the Court of Appeal to allow his appeal, quash the convictions and sentences, and discharge and acquit him on all counts. He also told the appellate court that he wants to attend the hearing, saying, “I want to be present at the hearing of the appeal because I may be conducting the appeal in person.”
Kanu is currently being held at a correctional facility in Sokoto State, in northwestern Nigeria, after a request to move him to another facility in either Niger State or Nasarawa State, both in central Nigeria, was refused.
