Nnamdi Kanu: Ohanaeze Youth Council expresses concern over November 20 judgment
The National leadership of Ohanaeze Youth Council, OYC has expressed concern over the judicial process for the judgement on the leader of Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Nnamdi Kanu, slated for November 20, 2025.
According to the OYC, the concern stems from what it alleged is the illegal rendition of Kanu from Kenya to Nigeria in June 2021 and the procedural inconsistencies surrounding the Terrorism Prevention (Amendment) Act of 2022, which repealed key sections of the 2020 Act under which the charges were filed.
In a press release on Monday signed by its National President, Igboayaka Igboayaka and the National Publicity Secretary, Ukpabi Michael Authority, Ohanaeze Youth Council said any trial founded upon an unlawful arrest or extraordinary rendition offends both international law and the Nigerian Constitution (Section 36 of the 1999 CFRN, as amended).
The group said that Nigeria remains a signatory to several treaties that prohibit such acts, including the Charter of the United Nations, the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
It warned that to proceed with a conviction without resolving the jurisdictional breach created by such a rendition, and stipulation of a written law under which Nnamdi Kanu is being tried, would constitute a travesty of justice and a dangerous precedence that undermines the integrity of the Nigerian judiciary before the global community.
It is equally disturbing that the charges against Kanu appear to hinge on the repealed provisions of the Terrorism Prevention Act (Cap. T23, LFN 2020), which were replaced by the Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022.
“By settled judicial principle, no citizen can be tried or convicted under a repealed law, as affirmed in multiple Supreme Court decisions, including FRN v. Ifegwu (2003) 15 NWLR (Pt. 842) 113.
“A conviction on such a basis would therefore not only be illegal, legally defective but would also expose the Nigerian state that there is ethnic targeting against Igbo tribe in the east, and further expose Nigeria to international embarrassment and potential sanctions for judicial abuse”, Igboayaka and Michael said.
