The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja on Friday dismissed the appeal filed by the leader of the proscribed Indigenous Peoples of Biafra  (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu.

According to the court, the appeal lacked merit and had become an academic exercise following his conviction by a Federal High Court on November 20.

The Director General of the DSS, and the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) were listed as respondents in the case.

Delivering judgement against the terrorism convict, a three-member panel of the appellate court held that Kanu’s claims alleging violations of his fundamental rights, including human dignity, access to quality health care, and freedom of religion, could no longer stand in the light of his conviction, life imprisonment sentence, and subsequent remand in prison.

Giving the lead judgement, Justice Boloukuromo Moses Ugo held that since Kanu’s lawyer, Maxwell Opara, confirmed at the start of proceedings that his client was being held at the Sokoto prison, the court could not grant his request to be transferred from the Department of State Services (DSS) facility to Kuje prison.

Justice Ugo added that because Kanu had previously expressed a preference for prison custody, his prayers could no longer be considered after his conviction and transfer to the correctional facility where he had sought to be kept.

The recent judgement followed Kanu’s appeal against the July 3 judgement by Justice Taiwo Taiwo of the Federal High Court in Abuja (now retired), which earlier dismissed his fundamental rights enforcement suit on the grounds that he failed to prove his case.