A member of the legal team representing the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu, Maxwell Opara, has dismissed reports suggesting that the separatist leader was stabbed or attacked at the Sokoto Custodial Centre.
Kanu is currently serving a life sentence at the facility following his conviction by Justice James Omotosho of the Federal High Court in Abuja. After the judgment, he was transferred from Abuja to Sokoto to serve his sentence.
Addressing the reports in a video shared on his social media page, Opara insisted that the claims were false and misleading.
“I want to start by telling you that nobody stabbed Nnamdi Kanu and nobody attacked him. He is here in the Correctional Centre in Sokoto.”
Opara also clarified issues surrounding a case filed at the Court of Appeal, Abuja Division, which sought Kanu’s transfer to the Kuje Correctional Centre to enable him access medical care.
“Secondly, there is this issue of his case that was struck out in the Court of Appeal, Abuja Division, last week. That case was filed in 2022 when we asked the court to order the DSS to transfer him back to a correctional centre so he could have access to a medical doctor. But we lost at the Federal High Court and then went to the Court of Appeal.
“When the matter came up, the court said it had become academic and struck it out.”
He explained that the appellate court struck out the matter on the grounds that it had become academic following Kanu’s conviction and sentencing.
Opara further shed light on why Justice Omotosho ordered that Kanu be moved to Sokoto to serve his sentence, noting that the decision was based on security considerations contained in the judgment.
“On the issue that relates to the one he filed at the Federal High Court so he could come back to Abuja to handle his appeal, that particular judgment relating to his conviction and sentence required that he be kept in a protective custodial centre in Nigeria, but he was taken to Sokoto Correctional Centre.
“So we tried to confirm from the correctional facility why they took him to Sokoto. Were they implying that Sokoto is more protective than Abuja?
“They said no. After indicating that in the judgment and in the remand warrant, the judge specifically mentioned Sokoto, and that’s why they took him there. Hence, he filed that motion at the Federal High Court,” he added.
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