Leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, has asked the Court of Appeal in Abuja to stop the Federal High Court from delivering judgment in his ongoing terrorism trial.

Justice James Omotosho, the trial judge in the terrorism case, had on November 7 fixed judgment for November 20. Kanu’s request is contained in a fresh motion on notice he personally filed, having sacked his legal team of very senior lawyers.

He is praying the Court of Appeal to stop the High Court from further proceeding with the charges against him.

His new motion was predicated on the ground that he had filed a notice of appeal against the September 26 ruling of Justice Omotosho, which dismissed his no case submission and ordered him to defend the terrorism allegations against him.

Kanu is contending that the Federal High Court was wrong in dismissing his no-case submission without going through the jurisdictional and validity of the charges he raised.

He argued that the lower court was wrong in upholding the charges because the Terrorism Prevention and Prohibition Act had been repealed, and therefore, there were no valid charges against him.

He also held that the Constitutional issue of jurisdiction was not addressed by the judge in the considered ruling on the no-case submission.

The ground of the motion was that Justice Omotosho did not evaluate the evidence of the prosecution witnesses and the cross-examination to determine whether the adduced evidence had been discredited.

Kanu added: “That he sought to call 23 witnesses only when the issue of jurisdiction had been determined, but which the court refused to do and stated that such would be done in the final judgment.

“That the judge foreclosed his right to defend himself from the charges while refusing to rule on his objections to the validity of some of the counts in the charges.”

Kanu said that if his request to stop the judgment delivery was not granted by the Court of Appeal, he may be unlawfully convicted and sentenced to jail.

Besides, he feared that if the November 20 judgment is delivered, his appeal against the no-case submission would become academic, and a fait accompli would therefore be foisted on the Court of Appeal.

The Biafra nation agitator submitted that neither he nor the Federal High Court would be prejudiced if the application is granted.

In a 13-paragraph affidavit in support of the motion, Kanu raised the issue of disobedience to the Supreme Court order on the validity of count 7 of the charges against him and the failure to apply the mandatory test under Section 303 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act 2015 ACJA.

Source; The Nation News