The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has called on the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) to publicly clarify the legal basis under which its detained leader, Nnamdi Kanu, is being tried.
The group was reacting a few weeks after the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) said in its report to the Federal High Court Abuja that Kanu was fit enough to stand trial.
Kanu, leader of IPOB, has been in detention since 2021 following his re-arrest and rendition to Nigeria from Kenya to face charges bordering on treasonable felony and terrorism, which IPOB insists are politically motivated.
A statement issued on Thursday by IPOB’s spokesperson, Comrade Emma Powerful, questioned the legitimacy of the ongoing proceedings against Kanu and urged the NBA to provide answers to what it described as a “fundamental legal question”.
“Let the NBA, as the supposed guardian of legal conscience in Nigeria, tell the world under what extant and subsisting law Mazi Nnamdi Kanu is being tried today,” Powerful said.
“Because the last time we checked, the law under which he was allegedly charged has been repealed. And the court itself seems too shy—or too complicit—to admit that elementary fact,” the statement said.
According to the statement, IPOB accused the judiciary of maintaining silence on what it described as a “legal inconsistency,” while urging the NBA to step in and uphold the principles of justice and transparency.
“If the judiciary won’t say it, the NBA should,” Powerful continued. “Unless, of course, they too have decided that rule of law is now a suggestion, not a standard.”
The group also took a swipe at individuals it claimed were misrepresenting Kanu’s case in public discourse.
“Instead of renting washed-out and poorly lettered individuals who parade themselves on television and social media to comment on matters far above their understanding, the NBA should do one very simple thing—since the court has refused to do it,” the statement read.
IPOB maintained that it was not seeking sympathy but clarity on the laws governing its leader’s prosecution.
“We are not asking for magic. We are asking for truth—the same truth the NBA once claimed to defend. The world is watching, and history is taking notes,” Powerful added.
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