The Nigerian government has moved the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, from the Department of State Services (DSS) detention facility in Abuja to a correctional centre in Sokoto State.
Kanu’s lawyer, Aloy Ejimakor, confirmed the transfer, stressing that the relocation places his client far from his family, legal team, and supporters.
“Mazi Nnamdi Kanu has just been moved from DSS Abuja to the correctional facility in Sokoto; so far away from his lawyers, family, loved ones and well-wishers,” Ejimakor wrote.
The move follows Kanu’s recent sentencing to life imprisonment by Justice James Omotosho of the Federal High Court in Abuja on terrorism charges.
His defence team has strongly condemned the ruling, describing it as a “travesty of justice” and pledging to appeal. Ejimakor argued that the judgment was based on Kanu’s words rather than direct actions.
“The verdict is not consistent with the evidence laid before the court. The sentence is overbroad, cruel and unusual,” he said, insisting that advocacy for self-determination should not be criminalised.
Barrister Maxwell Okpara, another member of the defence team, reassured supporters that higher courts would address what they consider a grave miscarriage of justice.
Kanu, who was arrested in Kenya in 2021 and detained at DSS facilities in Abuja, has now begun serving his life sentence at Sokoto Prison, according to his lawyers.
