… IPOB faults FG’ cross appeal, says action undermines judicial system
The leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu is set to engage the federal government in another round of legal battle, this time at the Appeal Court, Abuja.
Kanu, who is serving a life sentence over his agitation for a sovereign Biafra, had on Friday June 5, 2026 filed an appeal challenging the judgment of Justice James Omotosho, which imposed a life sentence on him.
But the federal government has filed a cross appeal against the same judgment, leaving IPOB fuming over the unexpected move.
In a statement signed by its spokesman, Emma Powerful, IPOB said that having filed his long awaited appeal against Omotosho’s conviction verdict it was expected that the case would be a straightforward issue.
But with the federal government having come up with a cross appeal the case of its leader “is no longer merely about one man”.
“It is now about whether the Nigerian judicial system is prepared to remain a legal institution or whether it is prepared to openly repudiate its own foundational principles. Nigerian judiciary, from the Supreme Court to the lowest in the land is effectively on trial before the whole world starting from today,” IPOB said.
According to the group, the judgment delivered by Justice Omotosho on November 20, 2025 “has created a crisis far bigger than the fate of Onyendu Mazi Nnamdi Kanu”, pointing out that “it has created a crisis of institutional credibility.
“What makes the situation extraordinary is that the Federal Government itself has now supplied one of the most devastating pieces of evidence against the judgment,” IPOB stated.
Citing the Brief of Argument in FG’s Cross-Appeal, IPOB noted that the Respondent (Federal Republic of Nigeria) “expressly admitted that James Omotosho J, ‘acted without jurisdiction’ when it imposed the sentence of life imprisonment instead of death penalty'”.
The Biafra movement group, said that FG’s admission that the court presided by Justice Omotosho lacked jurisdiction has changed everything.
“The Federal Government has effectively fired a cannon through the heart of the judgment it is simultaneously attempting to defend. The implication is simple: jurisdiction is not divisible,” IPOB said.
It argued that “jurisdiction is not a buffet from which a court may choose what portion it wishes to possess.Jurisdiction is not available for conviction but unavailable for sentencing”.
The group insisted that “jurisdiction is a continuum” (hence) a court either possesses jurisdiction throughout the proceedings or it does not”, adding that the principle has governed Nigerian law for decades.
“If the trial court lacked jurisdiction to impose sentence, as the Federal Government now asserts, then the same trial court lacked jurisdiction to produce the conviction from which the sentence supposedly arose.
“The conviction and sentence are juridically inseparable. One cannot survive without the other”.
IPOB stated that the Cross-Appeal “is only one aspect of the problem the government has created for itself in their attempt to use the invocation of the death penalty to intimidate Onyendu(Kanu) into renouncing Biafra restoration. They instead shot themselves in the foot”.
It further noted that with the Cross Appeal the FG “has inadvertently converted itself into a witness against its own judgment”, adding that “the danger this creates for the Nigerian judiciary cannot be overstated.
“Any attempt by the Court of Appeal to affirm the conviction while simultaneously accepting the Federal Government’s admission regarding jurisdiction would require the creation of an entirely new species of criminal jurisprudence unknown to Nigeria, unknown to the Commonwealth, and unknown to the common-law world over.
“The Court would effectively be saying that a trial court can lack jurisdiction and yet validly convict. No such principle exists. No such principle has ever existed.
“No respectable criminal justice system operates on that basis,” IPOB stated.
