The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has condemned the trial of its leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, describing it as a sham designed to undermine the Nigerian judiciary and mask the Federal Government’s reckless manipulation of justice.
In a detailed statement on Friday, IPOB spokesman Emma Powerful said the events at the Federal High Court in Abuja on June 19, 2025, exposed the government’s desperate attempt to implicate Kanu in the 2020 #EndSARS protests, a move the group called baseless and politically motivated.
Powerful said, “This case has been sustained by a toxic cocktail of deceit, media manipulation, evidentiary fraud, and a calculated campaign to criminalise self-determination.”
Following the prosecution’s closure of its case, led by Chief Awomolo, SAN, the defense, under Chief Kanu Agabi, SAN, announced its intention to file a ‘No-Case Submission’ due to the prosecution’s failure to present any credible evidence linking Kanu to terrorism or any other criminal offence. Justice James Omotosho adjourned the matter to July 18, 2025, for final written addresses.
The statement highlighted the prosecution’s last witness, PW5-EEE, an intelligence officer, who was discredited during cross-examination by Dr. Onyechi Ikpeazu, SAN. The witness was described as evasive, contradictory, and unprepared, prompting public caution from the prosecution’s lead counsel and visible frustration from the judge.
Powerful criticized the government’s attempt to blame Kanu for the #EndSARS protests, a youth-led grassroots movement originating in Ughelli, Delta State, calling the claim “absurd,” “intellectually bankrupt,” and “morally obscene.”
The prosecution failed to provide evidence for alleged killings of 200 security operatives in the South-East, with no death certificates, names, or ranks presented. The assessment report tying IPOB to these incidents was only produced in June 2025, five years after the events allegedly occurred.
“The autopsy reports and coroner’s certificates were unsigned and riddled with forgeries,” Powerful added, calling the case “fiction” rather than law.
IPOB questioned the Nigerian press for ignoring these revelations and urged Nigerians and the international community to obtain certified court transcripts to witness the government’s case collapse.
“Kanu is on trial not for violence but for speaking truth to power and demanding justice,” the statement concluded. “The government’s case is a monument to state-sponsored falsehood.”