“Nnamdi Kanu Trial: Rights Activists Demand Accountability from Nigerian Government Over Court Order Violations”

Under the auspices of the Rising Sun Foundation for Justice and Human Rights, human rights advocates have urged the world community to hold the Nigerian government responsible for repeatedly disobeying court orders during the trial of Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, or IPOB.

In a statement issued on Tuesday, the activists made the demand in advance of Kanu’s trial’s planned November 20, 2025 verdict. Rev. Fr. Augustine Odinmegwa, the group’s director, signed the statement.

The statement headed “Nigeria’s serial contempt of court: A decade of judicial fraud in the persecution of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu – The world must hold the Nigerian state accountable” enumerated court rulings that the Federal Government had disregarded since the trial began.

The IPOB leader is the beneficiary of all the court orders that the Nigerian government is accused of violating.

The activists characterized Kanu’s trial as an attempt to outlaw dissent and as persecution orchestrated by the state.

The statement said, “The Rising Sun Foundation for Justice and Human Rights issues this urgent global alert as Nigeria’s Federal High Court in Abuja gets ready to deliver what could be one of the most legally disastrous judgments in modern African history on November 20, 2025: Nigeria has entered its tenth consecutive year of orchestrated judicial fraud and open constitutional sabotage in the politically motivated persecution of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.”

“The Nigerian government, its security services, its prosecution teams, and even some members of the judiciary, such as Justice James Omotosho, have turned into serial lawbreakers, openly disobeying court orders on a local, regional, and global scale.

“This is not a legal procedure. It is persecution orchestrated by the state and an ongoing effort to criminalize dissent by undermining the very Constitution that Nigeria purports to defend. Following a criminal kidnapping from Kenya in June 2021, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, a British-based political activist and leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), has been wrongfully imprisoned for more than four years. This act has already been denounced as illegal rendition by courts in both Kenya and Nigeria as well as by several UN organizations.

The statement stated that the Nigerian government continues its prosecution based on repealed laws, jurisdictionally void charges, fabricated evidence, and judicial panels hand-picked to validate predetermined outcomes, despite eight distinct judicial victories over the course of eight years, none of which have ever been appealed or legally set aside.

The Rising Sun Foundation demanded prompt action from the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, the African Union, the UN Human Rights Council, and the International Criminal Court. The statement went on, “Nigeria’s actions now threaten not only Igbo rights but regional stability for all of West Africa.”

The Nigerian government breached eight orders that favored Nnamdi Kanu between 2017 and 2025, according to the activists.

“Nigeria did not comply with any. Every decision is final and cannot be challenged. Nigeria’s disobedience is deliberate rather than random.

1. 2017: Justice Binta Nyako of the Federal High Court in Abuja
The foundation of the current so-called terrorism trial was destroyed when the judge declared categorically that IPOB is neither a terrorist group nor an illegal one. Due to insufficient evidence, several accusations were dismissed. This ruling is still enforceable today, uncontested.

2019: According to the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, IPOB is protected by Articles 9, 10, and 11 of the African Charter and is neither violent nor terrorist. Nigeria’s policies against Igbo people were denounced as ethnic prejudice. Nigeria is bound by this decision in accordance with Article 1 of the Charter. There is no compliance.

2022: Kanu’s kidnapping from Kenya was ruled to be a blatant violation of both domestic and international law by the Federal High Court (Umuahia Division), which also ordered his release and dismissed all charges related to the unlawful rendition. Nigeria never filed an appeal. Nigeria never followed the rules.

2022: Justice Benson Anya of the Abia State High Court affirmed that the military invasion of Kanu’s residence during “Operation Python Dance” in 2017 was an attempt on his life by Nigerian security services. No appeal. No responsibility.

Court of Appeal, Abuja Division (Hanatu Sankey, Oladotun Adefope-Okojie, Ebiowei Tobi JJCA) October 13, 2022. In a landmark decision, the court declared that a retrial is unconstitutional under Section 36(9) CFRN because of double jeopardy and the illegality of Kanu’s rendition. Kanu was released and cleared of all charges. According to Nigerian law, this acquittal is definitive. However, Nigeria disregarded it and instead used Tsammani JCA to create judicial fraud in order to reverse it.

2022: The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (Opinion No. 38/2022) declared his detention to be unconstitutional, discriminatory, and arbitrary in all respects and called for his immediate release and compensation. Nigeria is still in flagrant violation. 2023: Judge Onuoha Onovo of the Enugu State High Court ruled that the Nigerian government’s treatment of IPOB members constitutes to systematic ethnic discrimination against the Igbo people. Nigeria disregards the verdict.

2025: The Kenyan High Court declared that the operation was an illegal rendition that violated Kenyan sovereignty and that Kenya had never approved Kanu’s transfer. It mandated accountability and remedies. Nigeria’s refusal to comply exacerbates the diplomatic damage.

According to the statement, “collectively, these rulings prove one thing: Nigeria is running a politically scripted persecution, not a lawful prosecution.”

The Court of Appeal’s Justice Muhammad Lawal Tsammani panel, which overturned the court’s earlier acquittal of the IPOB leader on October 13, 2022, was denounced by the activists.

“Nigeria’s most egregious judicial fraud occurred in October 2022,” the statement continued. The Nigerian government assembled a panel headed by Justice Muhammad Lawal Tsammani following the valid Court of Appeal acquittal on October 13. The panel used Order 6 Rule 1 of the Court of Appeal Rules, a civil process rule, to “stay” a criminal acquittal in a move never seen in Nigerian, African, or Commonwealth jurisprudence.

On its face, this is unlawful. A criminal acquittal cannot be overturned by civil proceedings. Not in Nigeria. Not in the United Kingdom. Not in the United States. Not in any part of the world. Such doctrinal cross-contamination is prohibited by Supreme Court rulings like Abacha v. State and FRN v. Anache.

“The Tsammani decision was not legally binding.
The core of the current constitutional problem is still judicial sabotage, which was orchestrated by the executive branch.

The Abuja Federal High Court, led by Justice James Omotosho, acted in “open constitutional defiance,” according to the campaigners.

The statement claims that the judge “knowingly forced Kanu to plead to a void, repealed, and non-existent law — first Criminal Code Cap C45 (repealed), then Customs & Excise Management Act 2004 (also repealed)” despite the Supreme Court’s clear directive to amend Count 7 to conform to an existing statute.

It further stated that the court declined to address the double criminality requirement under TPPA 2022, which includes the existence of a formal arrest of judgment motion, multiple domestic orders requiring Kanu’s release, the binding 2022 Court of Appeal acquittal, and the constitutional prohibition on prosecution under a repealed law (CFRN §36(12)).

“He has shut down jurisdictional challenges without a hearing, foreclosed addresses, and now intends to deliver judgment—an act that would constitute a void judicial nullity. This is not a mistake made by the court. The activists said, “It is intentional cooperation with executive misconduct.”

Nigeria’s ongoing noncompliance has put it in violation of its own Constitution, the African Charter, UN conventions, fundamental principles of fair justice, and anti-rendition law, the campaigners said, urging the international community to “act now.”

Therefore, the Rising Sun Foundation called for the UN Human Rights Council to look into Nigeria’s systematic judicial abuses, international sanctions against Nigerian officials responsible for noncompliance, and the prompt implementation of all current court decisions and acquittals.

In addition, the activists demanded international pressure to compel adherence to both domestic and international decisions.

“Nigeria’s judiciary is in danger of being irreparably destroyed. A state is disintegrating from within if it disobeys its own courts. We firmly support the Igbo nation, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, and all Nigerians who are calling for justice. The campaigners declared, “The world must stand with us.”