The detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, has petitioned the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), calling for disciplinary action against three senior judges whom he accused of miscarriage of justice in his prolonged trial.
In a strongly-worded petition personally signed by him and made public through his lawyer, Umesi, Kanu alleged that Justices Binta Nyako, Haruna Tsammani, and Garba Lawal engaged in gross judicial misconduct that has denied him fair hearing and violated his fundamental rights.
The IPOB leader, who has been in custody at the Department of State Services (DSS) headquarters in Abuja since his extraordinary rendition from Kenya in June 2021, said the actions of the judges amounted to an abuse of Nigeria’s judicial system.
According to Kanu, the “catalogue of infractions” by the judicial officers “now stands as an un-erasable blot on Nigeria’s legal conscience.” He accused them of using civil procedures to undermine criminal law, reviving repealed statutes in his case, and enabling practices that he described as “subverting justice.”
In his appeal to the NBA, currently holding its annual conference in Enugu, Kanu urged the association to launch a thorough investigation into the judges’ conduct. He specifically requested that the NBA:
- Sanction the three judges for what he termed judicial malpractice.
- Publish a formal report condemning the use of abduction and extraordinary rendition as a tool of detention.
- Affirm that no Nigerian should ever be tried under repealed laws.
- Hold errant judges accountable to restore public confidence in both the Bench and the Bar.
Kanu argued that his trial has become symbolic of wider issues of governance, human rights, and the independence of the judiciary in Nigeria.
“The time has come for the Bar to rise above silence and complicity. If judges who bend the law to political pressure are not held accountable, the rule of law itself becomes endangered,” he wrote in the petition.
The petition is the latest in a string of legal and political battles surrounding Kanu since his detention, with supporters insisting he is being persecuted for his activism, while the Nigerian government continues to prosecute him for treasonable felony and related charges.
