Nigerian separatist leader Nnamdi Kanu was convicted of terrorism by a court in Abuja and sentenced to life imprisonment.
The ruling, which can be appealed, is the latest step in a lengthy legal process that has seen the government face off against one of the country’s most controversial figures.
Kanu, 58, has over the past decade led a secessionist movement calling for parts of southeastern Nigeria to form a breakaway Biafra nation. The movement he forged seeks to tap into perceived feelings of marginalization by some in that part of the country, hearkening back to sentiments that fueled the Nigerian civil war nearly six decades ago.
But his Indigenous People of Biafra organization was designated a terrorist group in 2017 by the Nigerian government for alleged acts of violence, and a judge this week said Kanu had “an evil intention to wreak havoc on the people and government of Nigeria,” and had masterminded an illegal years-long order that forbade residents in Nigeria’s southeast from working on Mondays.