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The judiciary in Nigeria has found guilty independence advocate Nnamdi Kanu for terror-related charges ten years following his initial arrest.

The court affirmed that Kanu had made a series of transmissions encouraging violence and killings within his campaign for a separate state in Nigeria's south-eastern region, known as Biafra.

He was found culpable on each of the seven charges he confronted—encompassing terrorism, treason, and involvement with an outlawed separatist movement.

Emergence of a Separatist Leader

Previously a relatively obscure figure, Kanu's popularity surged in 2009 when he launched Radio Biafra, a station that called for an independent state for the Igbo people, broadcast to Nigeria from London.

Though he grew up in south-eastern Nigeria, where he studied at the University of Nsukka, Kanu relocated to the UK before graduating and obtained British nationality.

In 2014, he set up the Indigenous People Of Biafra (Ipob), an organization calling for self-rule.

Ban and Militant Actions

Ipob was banned as a terror group in 2017. The group's militant faction—the Eastern Security Network—has been accused of murders and additional incidents of aggression in recent years.

Delivering his judgement, Judge James Omotosho stated: "Mr Kanu knew what he was doing, he was determined to executing these intimidations without consideration to his own people."

"From the undeniable proof, it is clear that the defendant performed preliminary actions of terrorism."

"He was given the obligation to clarify himself but failed to do so."

Response and Legal Proceedings

Kanu remains a popular figure in his group's heartland in the south-east, but response to the verdict there has thus far been subdued.

During proceedings prior to the judgement, Kanu insisted that proceedings could not proceed because he had not yet submitted his concluding statement, alleging the judge of bias and misinterpreting the law.

The judgement was announced after Kanu had been forcibly removed from the court for disruptive conduct.

Arrest History

He was initially detained in October 2015 but he jumped bail in 2017 and departed the nation after a military raid on his home. The court later revoked his bail in March 2019 and he was detained again in 2021 in Kenya.

Historical Context

Demands for Biafra's sovereignty date back many years.

In 1967 leaders of the Igbo community proclaimed a Biafran state, but after a devastating civil war, which led to the loss of lives of up to a million people, the secessionist rebellion was quelled.