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From Stanley Uzoaru, Owerri
The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has claimed that the Federal Government’s cross-appeal in the case against its leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, amounts to an admission that the trial court lacked jurisdiction to impose life sentences, rendering the entire sentencing a “nullity”.
In a press statement issued by IPOB spokesperson, Emma Powerful, yesterday, the group said it “accepts in toto” the premise in the FG’s Notice of Cross-Appeal filed against the November 20, 2025 judgment of Justice J.K. Omotosho of the Federal High Court, Abuja.
IPOB quoted the government’s filing as declaring that “the trial court acted without jurisdiction when it imposed life imprisonment on Counts 1, 2, 4, 5 and 6”.
IPOB said if the court lacked jurisdiction at the sentencing phase, “the entire sentencing exercise is a nullity ab initio” and the Court of Appeal cannot “repair, cure, or resuscitate” it.
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The group cited the Supreme Court decision in Madukolu v. Nkemdilim (1962) to argue that a jurisdictional defect voids the proceedings. IPOB also accused the Attorney General of the Federation, Prince Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, and other Federal Government’s lawyers of “legal gymnastics” for seeking the death penalty on counts the government itself said were sentenced without jurisdiction.
“The FG cannot approbate and reprobate,” the statement said, adding that the cross-appeal reflects “desperation and bad faith”.
“We adopt the Federal Government’s own words as our own. If the trial court acted without jurisdiction at the sentencing phase, then the entire sentencing exercise is a nullity ab initio. Jurisdiction is not divisible. It is a sacred continuum. You cannot validly convict a man and then lack jurisdiction to sentence him on the same counts. That is judicial absurdity,” IPOB insisted.
The group described the move as “divine intervention” and “the inevitable collapse of the entire fabricated case against Onyendu”, and urged the Court of Appeal to dismiss the cross-appeal “with ignominy” and grant Kanu’s main appeal, leading to his “immediate and unconditional release”.
IPOB further stated that Kanu “will never yield” to any attempt to use the appeal to force him to renounce Biafra, calling him “the reincarnation of the indomitable Biafran spirit”.
