Detained leader of Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, wants the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA), to discuss his continued detention at its annual general meeting.
The NBA is meeting in Enugu from August 23, and Kanu who is facing terrorism charge since 2021, reminded the lawyers of the maxim, “Qui tacet consentire videtur (he who Is silent is taken to agree).”
In a letter addressed to the NBA president, dated August 18, 2025 and received at the National Secretariat on August 22, 2025, the IPOB warned that
“Silence now would make the NBA complicit in the erosion of Nigeria’s legal foundations.”
Kanu noted in the letter titled: “Re: Miscarriages of Justice in the Case of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu,” and personally signed by him, that 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.
He stated that IPOB, which he leads, is “an organisation which is a lawful human right organisation registered in over 18 countries of the world with peacefully agitation for my right to self determination of Biafra Republic which is a fundamental human right of association guaranteed both in local and international laws and human rights.”
He added that his letter is not merely 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,” and accused the courts of judicial lynching as against him.
Kanu stated that in his case, “audi alteram partem,” which is the sacred maxim of fair hearing has been shattered beyond recognition.
“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 details, 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, 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.“
Kanu listed some of the alleged infractions committed against him by three judges involved in his case, and urged the NBA to carry out thorough investigation of his claims and publish a report condemning use of civil procedures to subvert criminal law, and the resurrection of repealed statutes.
He demanded that NBA should affirm that no Nigerian should ever again be detained by abduction or tried under a repealed law, as well as “hold errant judges accountable, restoring public confidence in the Bar and Bench.”
According to him, “this case is not only about me. It is about whether Nigeria’s judiciary is bound by law or by impunity.
“The constitution, statutes, and international treaties have all been shredded.
“The Bar cannot be silent.
“I hereby call on Nigerian Bar Association to discuss these judicial misconducts as one of your topic of discussions in the ongoing 2025 NBA annual conference going on in Enugu State.”
