Uchechi Okwu-Kanu, wife of IPOB leader Nnamdi Kanu, has condemned the Federal High Court’s life imprisonment sentence handed to her husband on Thursday, alleging that judicial procedures in the trial were flawed.
The Federal High Court in Abuja, presided over by Justice James Omotosho, convicted Kanu on all seven terrorism-related charges brought by the Department of State Services, citing sufficient and credible evidence. The court noted that Kanu did not enter a defence, instead resting his case on the prosecution’s evidence, leaving the court with no option but to convict.
However, Uchechi Okwu-Kanu argued that the judge violated fundamental constitutional principles during the trial. “In Nigeria, a judge cannot ask a defendant to open a defense on terrorism-related charges without reading out the written law under which the court is trying that person,” she said, citing Section 36 of the 1999 Constitution, which guarantees that no person shall be convicted of an offence unless the law defining it and prescribing its penalty is clearly written.
She further alleged that Justice Omotosho read from a prepared script during sentencing and struggled to read portions of his own written judgment. “Everyone could hear him. Everyone could see that he was reading a script handed over to him, and that he could barely read out some of the words in his own very written judgment. How interesting,” she said.
Uchechi also accused the judge of forcing Kanu to plead under a repealed law and blocking his right to submit a final written address. “You cannot ask me to put my final address down, write it down, and then block it. So Mazi Nnamdi Kanu has a right to put a final address down, to write it down. But Omotosho blocked that and decided to read out those nonsense he called counts,” she said.
Her statements have sparked renewed debate over the conduct of Kanu’s trial and raised questions about adherence to constitutional protections in Nigeria’s judicial system.