Nnamdi Kanu’s legal team has vowed to appeal his life imprisonment sentence, insisting that the judgment delivered by Justice James Omotosho of the Federal High Court “does not hold water.”
Speaking to reporters shortly after the verdict, Kanu’s lawyer, Aloy Ejimakor, a consultant on the case, said they would take the matter to the Court of Appeal.
Ejimakor questioned the basis of the conviction, arguing that a man cannot be jailed for mere spoken words.
“What kind of precedent is being laid here? We are heading to the Court of Appeal,” he said.
“The Court of Appeal is the next forum in this country that sits as a jury. We will approach the justices to review what happened today, and we are confident they will see this as a travesty of justice.”
He added that if the Court of Appeal rules against them, they would proceed to the Supreme Court.
“Nnamdi Kanu is not going to stand convicted. The decision will be overturned,” he said.
Ejimakor criticised the ruling as inconsistent with the evidence presented. “This is the only day I have witnessed a man being convicted for mere pronouncements, for what he said, not for any act he committed.
The sentence is overbroad, cruel, and unusual. How can someone be convicted for a broadcast from a location that was never named, without linking it to any act of violence or terrorism?”