The family of convicted Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, has disclosed that he has written to the Chief Justice of Nigeria and the President of the Court of Appeal, seeking the immediate listing and hearing of his pending cases.
The Okwu-Kanu Family, in a statement issued on Tuesday, said Kanu’s action followed what it described as the Federal Government’s failure to file substantive responses in two separate proceedings despite several months having passed.
According to the family, Kanu initiated proceedings at the Supreme Court on November 7, 2025, challenging the legality of the apex court’s December 15, 2023, remittal judgment.
The family said the Federal Government was duly served with the case but had, based on the records available to them, neither filed a substantive response nor taken steps to have the matter listed for hearing more than nine months after its commencement.
It also revealed that Kanu has a separate appeal before the Court of Appeal challenging his November 20, 2025, conviction and life sentence.
The family questioned what it described as a contrast between the speed with which the judiciary acted when the Federal Government sought to prevent Kanu’s release in 2022 and the pace of proceedings relating to his current legal efforts.
It recalled that the Court of Appeal, on October 13, 2022, delivered a judgment discharging Kanu and quashing the criminal charges against him.
However, according to the family, the Federal Government secured a civil stay of execution from a differently constituted panel of the Court of Appeal on October 28, 2022, just 14 days after the discharge judgment.
The family argued that the criminal appeal had already been conclusively determined, insisting that the Court of Appeal was therefore functus officio.
It further maintained that civil procedure could not legally be relied upon to justify Kanu’s continued detention after the criminal charges against him had been quashed.
Describing the situation as an unprecedented “hybridisation” of civil and criminal procedure, the family argued that a civil stay was neither a criminal charge nor a remand order and could not restore criminal counts that had already been quashed.
The statement said, “Fourteen days. In fourteen days, the machinery of the Court of Appeal moved from an acquittal-equivalent discharge to a civil stay that kept Mazi Nnamdi Kanu in detention.”
The family said it was now seeking the same level of urgency in the handling of Kanu’s pending cases, stressing that he was not asking for preferential treatment but a timely determination of his appeals.
It further disclosed plans to formally notify the United States Congress, Israeli Knesset and International Bar Association about what it described as the issues surrounding Kanu’s legal proceedings.
Kanu has remained in detention following his conviction and life sentence in November 2025.
BACKSTORY:
Nnamdi Kanu’s latest request is coming against the backdrop of years of legal battles over his detention and prosecution by the Nigerian government.
In October 2022, the Court of Appeal in Abuja discharged Kanu and quashed the terrorism-related charges against him, citing violations of his fundamental rights and the manner in which he was brought back to Nigeria. The Federal Government subsequently challenged aspects of the decision and obtained a stay of execution, allowing Kanu to remain in custody.
The legal battle continued at the Supreme Court, which in December 2023 overturned the Court of Appeal’s decision and returned the case to the lower court for further proceedings.
Kanu was subsequently convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment in November 2025. His family says he is now pursuing separate legal challenges at the Supreme Court and Court of Appeal and is asking the courts to hear the matters without further delay.
The latest development therefore adds another chapter to Kanu’s prolonged legal battle, with his family insisting that he is seeking only a prompt determination of the pending cases rather than special treatment.
