Stephen Ukandu, Umuahia
The continued detention and trial of the Leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, has taken a sudden twist following his petition to the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), alleging miscarriage of justice.
Kanu, in his petition dated August 22, 2025, sought sanctions against Justices Binta Nyako, Haruna Tsammani, and Garba Lawal, whom he accused of gross judicial misconduct in handling his trial.
The IPOB leader, in a strongly worded petition he personally signed and released through one of his lawyers, Barrister Umesi, alleged that the trio disregarded extant laws in handling his case despite protests by his counsel.
Kanu, who is currently standing trial at the Federal High Court, Abuja, has remained incarcerated at the headquarters of the Department of State Services (DSS) since June 2021, following his extraordinary rendition from Kenya.
Despite several previous court judgments, including a declaration by the Court of Appeal ordering his immediate and unconditional release, the Federal Government has failed to release him.
In the six-page petition, Kanu outlined the alleged offenses of the judicial officers against him and urged the NBA, currently meeting in Enugu, to investigate and take appropriate measures against them.
He urged the NBA to: “Publish a report condemning the use of civil procedures to subvert criminal law, and the resurrection of repealed statutes; affirm that no Nigerian should ever again be detained by abduction or tried under a repealed law; and hold errant judges accountable, thereby restoring public confidence in the Bar and Bench.”
According to Kanu, “the catalogue of infractions” by the trio against him “now stand as an unerasable blot on Nigeria’s legal conscience.”
He further explained that the essence of his petition was also to determine whether Nigeria is still bound by international obligations it signed up to.
FULL TEXT OF THE PETITION
The President, Nigerian Bar Association,
Plot 1101, Mohammadu Buhari Way,
Central Business District, Abuja-FCT
Attention: Chairman, NBA Annual General Conference Planning Committee
RE: MISCARRIAGES OF JUSTICE IN THE CASE OF MAZI NNAMDI KANU
Sir, my name is Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), an organization which is a lawful human rights movement registered in over 18 countries of the world, peacefully agitating for my right to self-determination of the Biafra Republic, which is a fundamental human right of association guaranteed both in local and international laws and human rights instruments.
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 — by Justice Binta Nyako, Justice Haruna Tsammani, and Justice Garba Mohammed Lawal — amounts to nothing less than judicial lynching against constitutional order, and I am calling on the Nigerian Bar Association to incorporate this as one of your discussions in the ongoing NBA conference in Enugu State.
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. Audi alteram partem — the sacred maxim of fair hearing — has been shattered beyond recognition.
I. Section 36 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (CFRN) 1999 (as amended), 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 my case.
This letter sets out, in painstaking detail, 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, the 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.
II. Despite these findings, Nigerian courts, led by the above-mentioned judges, continue to subject me to proceedings that make a mockery of justice. They have resuscitated repealed laws, disregarded binding judgments, and validated an abduction that every credible body has condemned.
III. Justice Nyako, in particular, has persistently refused to enforce my constitutional right to a fair hearing, ignoring binding appellate decisions and international obligations. Justice Tsammani and Justice Lawal compounded the injury by their rulings at the Court of Appeal, which stand in stark violation of established legal precedent and Nigeria’s treaty obligations.
IV. These actions not only affect me as an individual but also set a dangerous precedent that undermines the rule of law in Nigeria. If judges can, with impunity, discard constitutional guarantees and international obligations, then no Nigerian is safe.
V. The Nigerian Bar Association, as the conscience of the legal profession, must rise to its historic duty. Silence in the face of such brazen judicial misconduct would amount to complicity.
VI. I urge the NBA to:
- Publish a report condemning the use of civil procedure to subvert criminal law, and the resurrection of repealed statutes.
- Affirm that no Nigerian should ever again be detained through abduction or tried under a repealed law.
- Hold errant judges accountable, thereby restoring public confidence in both the Bar and the Bench.
VII. The essence of this petition is also to determine whether Nigeria is still bound by the international obligations to which it has freely committed itself. The continued violation of these obligations in my case raises profound questions about the credibility of Nigeria’s commitment to the rule of law.
Respectfully submitted,
Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.
