•Tinubu and incarcerated IPOB leader, Nnamdi Kanu
The proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has demanded the immediate release of its leader, Nnamdi Kanu, accusing Justice James Omotosho of the Federal High Court, Abuja, of bias in Kanu’s conviction and sentencing.
The group alleged that the judge convicted Kanu without substantial evidence, claiming the ruling was politically motivated and intended to satisfy interests within the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), reports The Guardian.
In a statement issued yesterday by its Media and Publicity Secretary, Emma Powerful, IPOB described the judgment as a miscarriage of justice.
“Justice Omotosho convicted Mazi Nnamdi Kanu without proof, without allocutus, and exiled him to Sokoto — fully aware that such a transfer would make access to lawyers, funding of appeal, and effective defence financially prohibitive and practically near impossible,” the statement read.
“This was not justice. It was vendetta dressed in robes.”
IPOB further alleged that the judge acted in the interest of political actors within the APC, adding that insecurity has since spread to regions previously considered relatively safe.
“While Justice Omotosho busied himself doing the bidding of his APC political masters by jailing an innocent man, the very forces he sought to appease have now carried terror into Yorubaland itself,” the group claimed.
According to IPOB, communities are now under sustained attacks, with villages raided, lives lost and ancestral lands violated, describing the situation as a tragic irony. The group said Kanu had repeatedly warned that injustice would not be limited by ethnicity, religion or political alignment.
“He warned that those who sacrificed truth for ambition would reap the whirlwind. Those warnings are no longer prophecy — they are unfolding reality,” the statement said.
IPOB also challenged President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to justify Kanu’s continued detention amid worsening insecurity across the country.
The group warned that advisers urging the administration to sustain what it described as Kanu’s “unlawful detention” were deepening national instability.
“Those advising this administration to continue the unlawful detention of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu are not defending Nigeria — they are accelerating its collapse,” IPOB said.
“Nigeria will know no peace until justice is restored. The immediate release of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu is not a concession — it is a necessity.”
The group concluded by warning that history would judge those responsible for Kanu’s imprisonment, noting that “history is watching” and that “events are testifying.”
