A Nigerian court has sentenced separatist leader Nnamdi Kanu to life in prison after convicting him on all seven terrorism-related charges at the end of a decade-long trial that has inflamed tensions in the country's southeast.

Judge James Omotosho said prosecutors, who have called for Kanu to be sentenced to death, proved that his broadcasts and orders to his now banned Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) group incited deadly attacks on security forces and citizens.

The violence was part of his push for an independent Biafra state for the ethnic Igbo-dominated region which attempted to secede as the Republic of Biafra in 1967, triggering a three-year civil war that killed more than a million people.

Security was tight around the Abuja court amid fears of protests and violence.

Analysts

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