The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has strongly criticised the Nigerian Supreme Court’s handling of the case against its leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, accusing the judiciary of reviving repealed laws and undermining the constitution.
In a statement issued on Sunday by IPOB’s Media and Publicity Secretary, Comrade Emma Powerful, the group described the court’s decision as “judicial terrorism” and a “funeral of Nigeria’s rule of law.”
The group’s outrage stems from the Supreme Court’s December 15, 2023 ruling in FRN v. Nnamdi Kanu, which remitted charges for trial under the Terrorism Prevention Amendment Act 2013—a law fully repealed in May 2022 by the Terrorism Prevention and Prohibition Act 2022. IPOB argued that there is no saving clause in the new legislation to permit continuation of such charges, calling the legal move “necromancy.”
Emma Powerful further maintained that the Court of Appeal’s October 13, 2022 decision, which discharged and acquitted Kanu, should have been final, citing constitutional provisions and precedents that bar retrials after acquittal.
According to IPOB, Justice James Omotosho, who now presides over the case, faces a “jurisdictional void” as the charges rest on repealed laws, violate double jeopardy protections, and stem from what the group describes as “state-sponsored kidnapping.”
“We challenge the Nigerian Bar Association and global jurists to find one precedent in common law history where a court tried a man on repealed laws after a final acquittal. You will find none,” the statement read.
IPOB called on Justice Omotosho to strike out the case and urged the international community to sanction what it termed Nigeria’s “descent into legal barbarism.”
“This judgment is the funeral of Nigeria’s rule of law,” the statement concluded.
