The Department of State Services (DSS) has transferred the convicted leader of the proscribed Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB), Mr. Nnamdi Kanu, to the Nigerian Custodial Centre in Sokoto, in compliance with a judgement of the Federal High Court in Abuja.

A senior security source confirmed that the relocation followed Kanu’s conviction and sentencing for terrorism. Delivering judgement on Thursday, Justice James Omotosho of the Federal High Court ordered the DSS to move Kanu to any correctional facility in the country other than the Kuje Custodial Centre in Abuja. Justice Omotosho convicted and sentenced Kanu to life imprisonment on a seven-count charge of terrorism. The judge upheld the DSS’s allegations that Kanu used terrorism in his agitation for the secession of the South-East, South-South, and parts of Benue and Kogi states from Nigeria.

Kanu’s former lawyer and consultant, Mr. Aloy Ejimakor, confirmed the relocation in a statement on his X handle on Friday. He expressed concern that his client had been moved far from his legal team, family, and supporters. “While urging #Ndigbo to remain calm, I must question the wisdom of sending #MNK to Sokoto prison. When Awolowo was convicted in 1963, he was sent to the East, a neutral zone in his feud with the North. Pres. Tinubu can still halt this drift, as I said in this video,” he said.

Mr. Kanu was first arrested in 2015 and faced charges of treasonable felony, terrorism, and related offences over his leadership of IPOB, a proscribed separatist organisation. After fleeing the country, he was extradited from Kenya in 2021.