17/11/2025
Defence team raises alarm over ‘disturbing direction’ in terrorism trial
Mazi Nnamdi Kanu’s Global Defence Consortium has raised the alarm over what if described as the disturbing direction the trial of the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, is taking.
The defence team, a group of lawyers fighting for Kanu’s freedom, raised the alarm in a statement issued by Barrister Onyedikachi Ifedi, Esq., on Sunday.
Titled ‘A clear warning on the danger in Nnamdi Kanu’s trial’, the statement claimed that the Nigerian government is bent on convicting Kanu with a repealed law.
According to the defence team, what is happening in the trial is not normal and should be condemned by the civil society, the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, and the international community.
Kanu and his defence team have been arguing that the Terrorism Prevention Amendment Act 2013, under which he was charged, had been repealed by the Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition Act) 2022.
The Mazi Nnamdi Kanu Global Defence Consortium warned that the refusal of the court to entertain objections regarding its jurisdiction to try the IPOB leader portends danger for the justice system in Nigeria.
“We issue this statement to alert the public and the international community about the disturbing direction the trial of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu is heading under Justice James Omotosho of the Federal High Court, Abuja. What is happening is not normal. It is not lawful. And it is not safe for the future of justice in Nigeria.
“The big issue: Kanu is being tried on a law that no longer exists. The Federal Government is prosecuting Kanu under the Terrorism Prevention (Amendment) Act 2013. But that law was completely repealed when the new Terrorism Prevention and Prohibition Act 2022 came into force.
“A repealed law is a dead law. You cannot try or convict anyone under a law that does not exist. Even where inapplicable savings clause exists, it cannot defeat the supremacy of Section 36(12) of the Nigerian Constit