Abuja — The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has strongly condemned the life imprisonment sentence handed down to its leader, Nnamdi Kanu, accusing Justice James Omotosho of basing his judgment on “no written law.
In a statement signed by IPOB’s Media Secretary Emma Powerful, the group argued that the court’s decision is riddled with legal flaws, contradictions, and illegalities. IPOB claims that “no weapons, attack materials, or incriminating evidence” were ever recovered from Kanu.
IPOB further insists that “no witness, civilian or military, ever testified … that Mazi Nnamdi Kanu committed any offence known to Nigerian or international law. The group pointed to Section 36(12) of the 1999 Constitution, which states that a person cannot be convicted unless the offence and its penalty are defined in a written law. They are asking: “What written law was used to convict Kanu? Is the law still in existence, or has it been repealed?
IPOB described the ruling as a test of whether Nigeria still respects the rule of law, warning that the judgment represents "judicial authoritarianism. They pledged to dissect the judgment publicly — line by line — and to press their case before international bodies, insisting that their demand for a UN-supervised referendum remains legitimate.
The group also revisited historical allegations: IPOB accused the Nigerian military of killing its members in multiple locations (including Nkpor, Aba, Onitsha, and Emene), claiming these operations were never properly accounted for.
Finally, IPOB said that their agenda is peaceful and centered on self-determination — a right they argued is protected under Article 20 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, and other international human rights instruments.