A human rights lawyer, Barrister Christopher Chidera, has accused the Federal Government of using the pretext of “justice” to perpetuate what he described as the political persecution of the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.
Chidera, a member of Kanu’s legal team, made the allegation in a statement issued on Sunday in Owerri, the Imo State capital. He contended that the government’s approach to Kanu’s prolonged detention was less about upholding justice and more about silencing dissent under the guise of the rule of law.
According to the lawyer, recent media narratives claiming that “justice, not politics” should decide Kanu’s fate are misleading and designed to legitimise ongoing constitutional breaches. He argued that the Federal Government’s continued disregard for court orders releasing Kanu revealed “a pattern of executive impunity masked as judicial prudence.”
“What is paraded as justice is, in truth, a continuation of political persecution,” Chidera said. “The courts have long spoken. Kanu has been discharged and acquitted, yet he remains detained. This is not the rule of law—it is the manipulation of law to achieve political ends.”
The statement, titled “Demolishing the Facade: Why ‘Justice, Not Politics’ Is Really Code for Persecuting Nnamdi Kanu,” challenged narratives linking Kanu and IPOB to the recurring Monday sit-at-home orders in the South-East.
Chidera insisted that the separatist group had formally suspended the exercise, noting that criminals and opportunists had since hijacked the agitation to extort residents and destabilise the region.
“Even in detention, Kanu issued handwritten directives ending the sit-at-home campaign,” he said. “The continued violence in the South-East is not a reflection of IPOB’s policy but of state failure and unchecked insecurity.”
The lawyer further faulted the argument that Kanu’s matter should be decided solely by the courts. He recalled that both the Court of Appeal and the Federal High Court had previously ruled that Kanu’s rendition from Kenya in 2021 was illegal and unconstitutional.
Chidera criticised the Supreme Court’s decision to remit the case for retrial, describing it as per incuriam—a legal term meaning an error made in ignorance of established law.
“Once a man has been discharged and acquitted, he cannot be tried again for the same offence,” he said. “The continued proceedings before the Abuja Federal High Court are a direct affront to Section 36(9) of the 1999 Constitution, which prohibits double jeopardy.”
He further decried what he termed “the double standards of justice” in the government’s handling of cases involving separatist leaders compared to other violent actors.
“While armed militants and known terrorists have been granted amnesty and reintegration, Kanu—whose offence is essentially one of speech—remains in solitary confinement. This selective justice exposes the ethnic and political undertones driving his persecution,” he added.
Chidera urged President Bola Tinubu’s administration to “restore public confidence in the justice system” by obeying valid court orders and releasing the IPOB leader.
“Justice is not achieved by slogans,” he maintained. “It is realised when the state respects its own laws, obeys judicial pronouncements, and treats all citizens equally. The continued detention of a man acquitted by appellate courts offends both the Constitution and Nigeria’s moral conscience.”
The lawyer concluded that Nigeria’s credibility before the international community depends on its ability to distinguish governance from vengeance.
“Until the government stops criminalising dissent and obeys its own courts, the phrase ‘let justice prevail’ will remain hollow rhetoric masking state oppression,” Chidera warned.
