Nnamdi Kanu, the convicted leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra who is serving a life sentence at the National Correctional Centre in Sokoto, has filed a notice of appeal at the Court of Appeal challenging his terrorism conviction by the Federal High Court in Abuja.
The IPOB leader, who was convicted on November 20, 2025, filed the notice of appeal on Wednesday, February 4, 2026, listing the Federal Republic of Nigeria as the respondent.
In the notice, Kanu urged the Court of Appeal to allow his appeal and issue an order quashing his conviction on all counts in charge No. FHC/ABJ/CR/383/2015. He also seeks an order reversing and setting aside the sentences imposed on him by the Federal High Court judge, as well as an order discharging and acquitting him in respect of all counts in the charge.
The notice of appeal contains 22 grounds through which Kanu is contending, among others, that the trial judge erred in law by ignoring his preliminary objections and pending bail application, and that he was convicted despite a prior Court of Appeal ruling declaring earlier proceedings a nullity.
He also argued that the trial judge “erred in law by failing to resolve the procedural and competence consequences” arising from the disrupted 2017 trial.
In other grounds set out in the notice of appeal, Kanu accused the trial judge of misdirection in treating his absence from Nigeria as adverse. He also said he was convicted under a repealed law, retried on overlapping facts, and sentenced without consideration of mitigation or “allocutus.”
Kanu was first arrested in October 2015 and charged with offences including treasonable felony and unlawful possession of arms. He was granted bail in 2017 but fled Nigeria after soldiers reportedly raided his home.
He was rearrested in Kenya in June 2021 and brought back to Nigeria to face trial on seven terrorism-related counts.
The case was restarted under Justice James Omotosho in March 2025, following earlier judicial recusals. Between May and June 2025, the court set strict deadlines for the federal government to close its case. In September 2025, Kanu filed a no-case submission, which was dismissed. The court later ordered a medical panel to assess his fitness to stand trial.
In October 2025, Kanu dismissed his legal team and said he would represent himself. He repeatedly declined to open his defence, asserting there was no valid charge against him.
After failing to persuade Kanu to open his defence and keeping the window open for him to do so for some time, the judge ultimately found that he had waived his right to put forward his defence.
On November 20, 2025, the judge delivered judgment, convicting Kanu on all seven counts and sentencing him to life imprisonment.
