Terrorism Trial: Nnamdi Kanu Wants Case Discussed at NBA Conference 

Alex Enumah in Abuja 

When the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) begins its 2025 national conference in Enugu State, one of the issues the detained leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, wants discussed is his alleged unlawful and illegal rendition from Kenya and subsequent terrorism trial at the Federal High Court in Abuja.

This was following a personal request to the body through a letter to the President, Mazi Afam Osigwe, SAN, by Kanu.

In the letter dated August 18, 2025 and received at the NBA’s national secretariat on August 22, 2025, the IPOB leader, stated that the NBA, as one of the guardians of the legal profession and the promoter of the rule of law, cannot continue to turn its face the other way in respect of his ongoing trial. 

Kanu in the letter titled: ‘Re: Miscarriages of Justice in the Case of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu’, and personally signed by him, accused the judiciary, especially some judges of miscarriage of justice.

“Sir, my name is Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), an organisation which is a lawful human right organisation registered in over 18 countries of the world with peacefully agitation for my right to self-determination of Biafra Republic which is a fundamental human right of association guaranteed both in local and international laws and human rights. 

“May I inform you that this is not merely a letter of a persecuted man; it is a bill of indictment against a segment of the Nigerian judiciary that has, in my case, converted courts of law into arenas of impunity. 

“What has been done to me in Abuja courts … amounts to nothing less than the judicial lynching as against constitutional order and I am calling on Nigerian Bar Association to incorporate this as one of your discussions in the ongoing NBA conference going on in Enugu State,” the letter read in part.

While alleging that the sacred maxim of fair hearing has been shattered beyond recognition, the Biafra nation agitator claimed that Section 36 of the Constitution and Sections 169 and 293 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA) 2015, and binding international instruments like the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (Article 7) and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (Article 14) have all been mutilated in his case.

“This letter sets out, in painstaking details, the catalogue of infractions that now stand as an unerasable blot on Nigeria’s legal conscience, supported by judicial authority. 

“It is further compounded by the fact that multiple authoritative bodies — including the Supreme Court itself, Court of Appeal of Nigeria (which discharged me), the Federal High Court (which declared my extraordinary rendition illegal), the Kenyan High Court, UN Special Rapporteur opinions, and the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (UNWGAD) — have confirmed that I was abducted, tortured, and extraordinarily renditioned from Kenya in violation of domestic and international law,” the letter added.

Kanu, who listed some of the alleged infractions committed against him in the letter and three judges involved, urged the NBA to carry out thorough investigation of his claims and publish a report condemning use of civil procedures to subvert criminal law, and the resurrection of repealed statutes.

“Affirm that no Nigerian should ever again be detained by abduction or tried under a repealed law. 

“Hold errant judges accountable, restoring public confidence in the Bar and Bench,” he urged. 

According to him, this case is not only about me. 

“It is about whether Nigeria’s judiciary is bound by law or by impunity. 

“The constitution, statutes, and international treaties have all been shredded. 

“The Bar cannot be silent. 

“I hereby call on Nigerian Bar Association to discuss these judicial misconducts as one of your topics of discussions in the ongoing 2025 NBA annual conference going on in Enugu State. 

“Qui tacet consentire videtur — he who is silent is taken to agree. 

“Silence now would make the NBA complicit in the erosion of Nigeria’s legal foundations. Thank you and God bless the NBA,” Kanu concluded.