Alleged terrorism: NMA panel report stalls Nnamdi Kanu’s trial

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Oct 8, 2025 - 14:00
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Kanu raises alarm, alleges tricks by FG to perpetually hold him down Leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, has drawn attention to what he described as serial executive and judicial fraud being perpetrated against him since his extraordinary rendition in 2021. In an open letter addressed to Nigerians yesterday, Kanu said: ‘’In a judgment entered on March 1, 2017, the Federal High Court, Abuja, ruled that the ‘IPOB is not an unlawful group’. At the time, it received widespread publicity which can be verified. ‘’This landmark ruling (made by the court before it turned unjust) emanated in a criminal proceedings that required ‘proof beyond reasonable doubt’ and in which the federal government and my humble self presented our respective cases. ‘’Alas! Instead of the federal government to go on appeal as the law mandated (if they are dissatisfied with the judgment), the former Attorney-General (Abubakar Malami) went behind closed doors with a letter signed by late Abba Kyari and got IPOB proscribed/tagged a terrorist group in an ex parte proceedings that conducted without notice to me or to the IPOB. ‘’This abominable incident was the earliest sign yet that the government and its judiciary have struck an unholy and fraudulent alliance to deny me my rights and thereby imperil the life and liberty of millions who identity with IPOB. ‘’On October 26, 2022, a Federal High Court declared my extraordinary rendition and detention as unconstitutional, stating that: ‘the manner of arrest and detention of the Applicant (Mazi Nnamdi Kanu) in Kenya, his continued detention in Abuja, his subjection to physical and mental trauma by the Respondents, the inhuman and degrading treatment meted out to the Applicant amounts to a brazen violation of the Applicant’s fundamental right to dignity of his person and threat to life under Section 34 (1)(a) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended).’ ‘’The court further ordered the federal government to apologize to me and pay me compensation. In a responsible society and well-ordered, run by a responsible government, this judgment is sufficient to have ended my lengthy detention and encourage the federal government to constructively engage me on the issue of the self-determination agitation that triggered this whole saga. ‘’Pedal back to October 13, 2022, when the Court of Appeal held that: ‘The courts must never shy away from calling the executive to order when they resort to acts of ‘executive lawlessness.’ ‘’The duty of the courts is to maintain a balance between ensuring that law and order is obeyed and the protection of the individual from oppressive actions by the executive. ‘’By the forcible abduction and extraordinary rendition of the Appellant (Mazi Nnamdi Kanu) from Kenya to this country on the 27th day of June 2021, in violation of international and state laws, the lower court or, indeed, any court in this country is divested of jurisdiction to entertain charges against the Appellant’. ‘’Despite the clarity of this judgment and its comportment with reason, the federal government refused to release me from detention while it went behind closed doors and connived with three other justices of the court of appeal who fraudulently and swiftly sat on appeal over the judgment and practically destroyed it by issuing what they termed ‘a stay of execution’. ‘’One may then ask: Is it not abominable for a court to stay a judgment the government already disobeyed? In a plethora of cases, the Supreme Court has held that anybody who disobeys a related court order cannot be given any judicial relief until such order is obeyed. ‘’This is a sound reasoning that applied to everybody but is fraudulently overlooked when it comes to my case. Fast forward to 15th December 2023 when the Supreme Court sent back my case to the Federal High Court for trial. ‘’For avoidance of doubt, that was not the only decision the Supreme Court made. It also decided that my bail should not have been revoked and it went on to state clearly that the judge exhibited significant and unacceptable bias by revoking my bail. ‘’In a sane society, one would expect that when the High court received my case from the Supreme Court and hankered down for trial, it was also duty-bound to restore my bail in line with the pronouncement of the apex court. ‘’But that did not happen. Why? Well, your guess is as good as mine and that is: the Court connived with the federal government to continue my detention in violation of Section 287 of the Nigerian Constitution. ‘’On September 24, 2024, I decided that I have had enough of taking my chances at getting justice from a judge that, in June 2021, sent me to secret police detention without fair hearing, later refused to transfer me to prison to better prepare for my trial and capped it all by refusing to restore my bail and instead ordering an accelerated trial in the face of the reality that I will never get a fair trial whilst detained at the DSS. ‘’These are the major reasons that compelled me to request recusal of the judge and having consented to it, she proceeded to make an order removing herself from my case. That order was never challenged on appeal; thus it remains extant to this day. ‘’But instead of the Chief judge of the Federal High Court to do the lawful thing by assigning my case to another judge, he connived with the federal government to eat crow and send my case to a judge that stands recused by a valid order. ‘’To conclude this open letter, let me make it clear that it should in no way be construed to mean that there are no decent judges in Nigeria that can be trusted to deliver even-handed justice in my case. That is not the issue. ‘’Instead, the issue is that my case is deliberately being shielded from judges and justices that are deemed to be committed to doing justice, even when it means that the federal government must lose. ‘’Be that as it may, if it will take the rest of my life in detention to produce me before a proper and impartial court, so be it. But let me say this for the world to know: I will not succumb to any trial conducted by any judge or court whose jurisdiction does not pass constitutional muster. Not now, not ever.’’

…Court adjourns case to October 16

By Ikechukwu Nnochiri

ABUJA– The Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, on Wednesday, adjourned further proceedings in the terrorism charge pending against the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, till October 16.

The adjournment followed the inability of the Nigerian Medical Association, NMA, to conclude and submit before the court its findings on the health status of the defendant.

Trial Justice James Omotosho had, on September 26, ordered the NMA which is the umbrella body of medical practitioners in the country, to constitute a team of experts to ascertain Kanu’s health condition.

The order came after the court dismissed a no-case-submission the embattled IPOB leader filed to be discharged and acquitted of the seven-count charge the federal government preferred against him.

The court gave the medical body eight days to submit its assessment report on Kanu’s health, before it.

The report, the court said, would assist it in determining whether or not it should grant Kanu’s request to be transferred to the National Hospital in Abuja for adequate medical attention.

Specifically, Justice Omotosho directed NMA’s team to visit the medical facility of the Department of State Services, DSS, which has Kanu in its custody, to confirm if it has the capacity to meet his health needs.

He held that the NMA committee was at liberty to use any hospital in the country to carry out its investigations.

The committee, the court said, should comprise eight to 10 medical practitioners, among whom should be a Cardiologist and a Neurologist.

More so, the court ordered that the Chief Medical Director of the National Hospital must also be a member of the committee.

Meanwhile, when the case was called up on Wednesday, a counsel from the DSS, Mr. Suraj S’aad, SAN, informed the court that the NMA contacted the security agency and indicated that the medical report was not ready for presentation.

He, therefore, applied for a week’s adjournment to enable the medical board to conclude its assessment.

The application for an adjournment was not opposed by Kanu’s legal team, which was led by Dr. Onyechi Ikpeazu, SAN.

Consequently, Justice Omotosho deferred the submission of the report till the next adjourned date.

Kanu had, in a motion marked: FHC/ABJ/CR/383/2025, bemoaned that his health had taken a worrisome decline, a situation he said necessitated the invitation of doctors who carried out a thorough examination on him.

“The examination revealed issues to his health, including organs such as his pancreas and liver as well as an emerging lump underneath his armpit and dangerously low levels of potassium.

“The doctors have recommended that he be moved to the National Hospital as an interim measure to afford him medical attention and forestall further decline.

“The applicant’s health is seriously deteriorating, considering the nature of his confinement, thereby making more pressing the need to bring this application and have same heard by a vacation judge,” he added.

However, while opposing the application, the federal government’s team of lawyers led by Chief Adegboyega Awomolo, SAN, insisted that the DSS has well-equipped medical facilities that could effectively provide Kanu’s medical needs.

The federal government equally faulted the medical report that was issued by private physicians/consultants whom Kanu engaged to assess the condition of his health.

Earlier, the court dismissed the defendant’s contention that the prosecution failed to establish a prima facie case to warrant the continuation of his trial.

Kanu had after the prosecution closed its case with the evidence of five witnesses who were mostly DSS operatives, urged the court to terminate the trial and discharge him for want of evidence to sustain the charge.

He maintained that the totality of the evidence before the court did not establish that he committed any known crime.

While dismissing the application, the court said it was convinced that from both oral and documentary evidence that were adduced by the prosecution, a prima facie case was established to require explanations from the defendant.

It held that it was in Kanu’s interest that he should be allowed to clear the air on some of the allegations the FG levelled against him.

Therefore, the court ordered him to open his defence to the charge.

It will be recalled that Kanu was arrested on October 14, 2015, upon his return to the country from the United Kingdom.

Following his arraignment, the court, on April 25, 2017, granted him bail on health grounds after he had spent about 18 months in detention.

Upon the perfection of the bail conditions, he was on April 28, 2017, released from the Kuje prison.

However, midway into the trial, the IPOB leader escaped from the country after soldiers invaded his country home at Afara Ukwu Ibeku in Umuahia, Abia State, an operation that led to the death of some of his followers.

Kanu was later re-arrested in Kenya on June 19, 2021 and extraordinarily renditioned back to the country by security agents on June 27, 2021.

Owing to the development, the trial court, on June 29, 2021, remanded him in the custody of DSS, where he has remained to date.

On April 8, 2022, the court struck out eight out of the 15-count charge that FG preferred against him on the premise that they lacked substance.

Likewise, the Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal, on October 13, 2022, ordered Kanu’s immediate release from detention even as it quashed the charge against him.

Dissatisfied with the decision, the federal government took the matter before the Supreme Court, even as it persuaded the appellate court to suspend the execution of the judgment, pending the determination of its appeal.

While deciding the appeal, the Supreme Court, on December 15, 2023, vacated the judgment of the appellate court and gave the federal government the nod to try the IPOB leader on the subsisting seven-count charge.

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