Our plan for Nnamdi Kanu still under consideration, insists the Nigerian government

The Nigerian government has again indicated that it is not yet ready to release Nnamdi Kanu, more than 24 hours after his release by the Abuja Court of Appeal.

Speaking to reporters after a national security meeting in Abuja on Friday, Police Affairs Minister Mohammed Dingyadi said the government was still reviewing the court's decision before taking a position.

Echoing Federation Attorney General Abubakar Malami, who gave the government's first reaction to the verdict on Thursday evening, Mr. Dingyadi said that Mr. Kanu, the leader of the outlawed indigenous people of Biafra ( IPOB), was only released and not acquitted by the court.

Mr. Kanu, who has dual Nigerian and British nationality, has been held by the State Security Service (SSS) on terrorism charges against him since his arrest in Kenya and return to Nigeria in June last year .< /p>

Twenty-four hours after charges against him were dismissed and his release ordered by the appeals court, Dingyadi said on Friday the government was still reviewing the case and would make known its position after assessing all legal options available.

“Similarly, the issue of Kanu was also raised and the Council was briefed on the status of it and it was observed that Kanu was released but he was not acquitted.

Thus, the government is considering the appropriate action to be taken on the matter and Nigerians will be informed of the position that will ultimately be taken on the matter in due course,” Mr. Dingyadi said.

Mr. Dingyadi's comment is a repeat of the exact assertions made by Mr. Malami in a statement on Thursday.

The line "released but not acquitted" is seen by lawyers as a fuzzy basis for the government's attempt to keep Mr. Kanu in custody against the Court of Appeal's clear order for his release.

With no charges pending against the separatist leader who advocates the secession of the Igbo-dominated states of Nigeria as an independent nation of Biafra, lawyers say there is no legal basis for continue to keep him in detention.

PREMIUM TIMES reported how a three-member panel of the Abuja Court of Appeal on Thursday struck out the remaining seven charges against Mr. Kanu.

This followed an earlier decision by trial judge, Binta Nyako of the Federal High Court in Abuja, in April, dismissing eight of the 15 amended charges filed against him by the federal government.

The charges were a fallout of Mr. Kanu's separatist activities.

Mr. Kanu advocates secession of Ibo-dominated southeastern states as well as some south-south states as an independent nation of Biafra.

The charges included a felony treason first filed against him after his arrest in 2015. This also included terrorism-related charges brought into the case after he was re-arrested outside from Nigeria and brought back to face trial in June 2021.

Mr. Kanu, unhappy with the partial dismissal of the charges against him by the Federal High Court in April, had appealed to the Abuja Court of Appeal to challenge the validity of the remaining seven charges.

The Court of Appeal panel led by Jummai Sankey on Thursday dismissed all remaining charges against Mr. Kanu, ruling that the trial court 'has no jurisdiction over the action ".

The tribunal ruled that Mr. Kanu's extradition from Kenya in June 2021 to Nigeria without complying with extradition rules was a gross breach of Nigeria's extradition treaty and a violation of the leader's basic human rights of the IPOB.

He said Nigerian government lawyer David Kaswe had not denied the arguments of Mike Ozekhome, Mr Kanu's lawyer, that the separatist leader had been "extraordinarily returned from Kenya".

The appeals court found that the federal government's failure to adequately respond to Mr. Kanu's arguments gave merit to the appeal.

The appeals court also said the Federal High Court did not review the prosecution's submissions because it would not have tried Mr. Kanu based on the prosecution...