Nnamdi Kanu’s legal team has vowed to challenge his conviction, insisting that the judgment is fundamentally flawed and cannot stand.
Speaking to journalists at the Federal High Court shortly after Justice James Omotosho delivered the ruling that handed Kanu a life sentence, his lawyer, Ifeanyi Ejiofor, who appeared in court in a consultative capacity, confirmed that the defence would immediately proceed to the Court of Appeal.
“What kind of precedent is being laid here? We are heading to the Court of Appeal,” he said.
Ejiofor questioned the basis of the conviction, arguing that no individual should be sentenced to life imprisonment over spoken words alone, and wondered why such reasoning was upheld by the Federal High Court.
“The Court of Appeal is the only court in this country, or the next court in this country that sits as a jury. We are going to approach justices there to check out what happened in court today.
“And we are pretty sure the justices will agree with us that today was the symbol of the travesty of justice that everybody has been suspecting.”
He said further: “If the Court of Appeal disagrees with us, we head to the Supreme Court. Nnamdi Kanu is not going to stand convicted. He’s going to get overturned.
“This is the only day I have witnessed a man being convicted for mere pronouncements, just for what he said from his mouth, not what he did with his own hands.
“The verdict is not consistent with the evidence laid before the court. The sentence is overbroad, cruel and unusual.
“How can you convict a man for making a mere broadcast from a location that was never named and he never tied that broadcast to any single incident of violence, or even someone slapping someone, not to talk of terrorism.”