Biafra agitator Nnamdi Kanu on Monday said he would not enter a defence in his terrorism trial at the Federal High Court in Abuja, insisting that there were no valid charges against him.

Mr Kanu announced this decision at the resumed hearing in the case on Monday, fixed for him to open his defence.

The leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) told the judge, James Omotosho, that he had reviewed the case of the prosecution and found it was not worth defending.

Mr Kanu, who is being tried for his violence-inciting campaigns for the independence of Nigeria’s South-east and parts of neighbouring states as Biafra, said there was no valid charge against him in the first place, rendering his defence unnecessary.

“There is no extant law in this country upon which the prosecution can predicate the charges against me. If there’s any, let my Lord read it out to me. So, I should not enter any defence in a charge that does not exist under any law in Nigeria,” Mr Kanu said.

Under Nigeria’s criminal procedure, a defendant can only enter a defence or waive his defence after the prosecution has closed its case and the defendant’s no case submission has been dismissed.

The dual citizen of Nigeria and the United Kingdom maintained he was being “detained under a fraudulent charge”, which he claimed, “the Supreme Court has said it ought not to be.”

He urged the judge to release him immediately or grant him bail on grounds of ill health.

His decision not to enter a defence is his first major legal step he has taken yet in the terrorism trial since taking over his own defence after suddenly sacking his lawyers last Thursday.

Despite the judge cautioning against not entering a defence when the defendant’s no-case submission has been dismissed, Mr Kanu insisted there was no