SOKOTO, Nigeria — A federal high court in Abuja on Monday, December 7, 2025, declined to grant an emergency application seeking the transfer of Nnamdi Kanu, the detained leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra, from the Sokoto correctional facility to a prison closer to Nigeria’s capital.
Kanu was remanded in Sokoto following his conviction on Thursday, November 20, 2025, on a seven-count terrorism-related charge by the same court.
He was sentenced to life imprisonment.
In the application filed before the court, Kanu had asked for “an order compelling the complainant (federal government) and/or the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS) to forthwith transfer him from the Sokoto Correctional Facility to a custodial facility within the jurisdiction of this honourable court”.
As an alternative, he sought to be transferred to facilities “within the court’s immediate environs, such as the Suleja or the Keffi Custodial Centre”, arguing that the move was necessary to allow him “to effectively prosecute his constitutionally guaranteed right of appeal”.
The motion was argued on Monday, December 8, 2025, by Demdoo Asan, a lawyer from the Legal Aid Council of Nigeria, who represented Kanu in court.
Asan brought the application as an ex parte motion, meaning it was made without putting the federal government or the correctional authorities on notice.
However, the presiding judge, James Omotosho, ruled that the nature of the reliefs sought made an ex parte application inappropriate.
“You are from Legal Aid Council, counsel? Do you think it is by ex parte motion this application ought to be granted, having it in mind that judgment was delivered when the two parties were present?” Omotosho asked in court.
He added, “Also, among the respondents to obey the order is the correctional service, and you think it is through ex parte motion that the court can make the order for his transfer? Don’t you think this application should have come by motion on notice?”
In response, Asan conceded that the parties affected by the application were entitled to be heard.
“My lord, the respondents have the right to be heard. Usually, the court can make an order that they should be put on notice,” he said.
Following the exchange, Omotosho struck out the first relief in Kanu’s motion and ordered that the federal government and the Nigerian Correctional Service be formally served to enable them respond.
The judge also took issue with Kanu’s notice of appeal, which had been filed on Monday, November 10, 2025, ten days before the court delivered its judgment convicting him on Thursday, November 20, 2025.
Omotosho said that, in light of the conviction and sentence handed down on that date, “there is no notice of appeal before this court”.
He subsequently adjourned the matter until Tuesday, January 27, 2026, to allow Kanu to properly serve the prosecution and the correctional authorities, and for the motion to proceed in line with due process.
Kanu, a British-Nigerian activist and leader of the secessionist Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), has remained a central figure in Nigeria’s long-running agitation for an independent Biafran state in the country’s south-east.
His conviction last month marked one of the most significant legal outcomes yet in the federal government’s campaign against separatist movements it has designated as terrorist organisations.
The decision to detain him in Sokoto, in Nigeria’s far north-west, has drawn criticism from some of his supporters, who argue that the distance hampers access to legal counsel and family.
The government has maintained that his detention and prosecution are being handled in line with national security considerations and existing law.
Monday’s ruling ensures that any further attempt by Kanu to change his place of detention will now have to be argued openly, with both the federal authorities and the correctional service given the opportunity to respond.
