Under the auspices of the Rising Sun Foundation for Justice and Human Rights, human rights activists have called on the international community to hold the Nigerian government responsible for repeatedly disobeying court orders during the trial of IPOB leader Nnamdi Kanu.
The call was made by the activists in a statement issued on Tuesday in advance of Kanu’s trial’s planned November 20, 2025 verdict. The director of the organization, Rev. Fr. Augustine Odinmegwa, signed the statement.
The statement titled “Nigeria’s serial contempt of court: A decade of judicial fraud in the persecution of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu – The world must hold the Nigerian state accountable” enumerated court orders that the Federal Government has disregarded since the trial started.
The IPOB leader is favored by all of the court orders that the Nigerian government is accused of disobeying.
The activists characterized Kanu’s trial as an attempt to criminalize dissent and a state-engineered persecution.
The statement stated, “The Rising Sun Foundation for Justice and Human Rights issues this urgent global alert as Nigeria’s Federal High Court in Abuja prepares to deliver what may be one of the most legally disastrous judgments in modern African history on November 20, 2025: Nigeria has entered its tenth consecutive year of orchestrated judicial fraud and open constitutional sabotage in the politically motivated persecution of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.”
The Nigerian government, its security services, its prosecution teams, and even some members of its judiciary, such as Justice James Omotosho, have turned into chronic lawbreakers who openly disobey court orders on a local, regional, and global scale.
“This isn’t a legal procedure. It is persecution orchestrated by the state and a persistent effort to criminalize dissent by undermining the very Constitution that Nigeria purports to defend. Following a criminal kidnapping from Kenya in June 2021, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, a British-based political activist and leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), has been wrongfully detained for more than four years. This act has already been denounced as illegal rendition by courts in both Kenya and Nigeria, as well as by several UN bodies.
The statement stated that the Nigerian government continues its prosecution based on repealed laws, jurisdictionally void charges, fabricated evidence, and judicial panels handpicked to validate predetermined outcomes, despite eight distinct judicial victories over the course of eight years, none of which have ever been appealed or legally set aside.
The United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, the African Union, the UN Human Rights Council, and the International Criminal Court were urged to step in right away by the Rising Sun Foundation. The statement went on, “Nigeria’s actions now threaten not only Igbo rights but also regional stability for all of West Africa.”
The Nigerian government violated eight rulings in favor of Nnamdi Kanu between 2017 and 2025, according to the activists.
Nigeria did not comply with any. Every decision is final and cannot be appealed. Nigeria’s disobedience is deliberate rather than coincidental.
1. Justice Binta Nyako of the Federal High Court in Abuja in 2017
The core of the current so-called terrorism trial was destroyed when the court declared categorically that IPOB is neither a terrorist organization nor an illegal organization. Due to insufficient evidence, a number of charges were dropped. Today, this ruling is still enforceable and uncontested.
According to the 2019 African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, IPOB is protected by Articles 9, 10, and 11 of the African Charter and is neither violent nor terrorist. Nigeria’s actions were denounced as ethnic discrimination against Igbo people. Nigeria is bound by this decision under Article 1 of the Charter. No adherence.
2022: Kanu’s kidnapping from Kenya was ruled to be a blatant violation of both domestic and international law by the Federal High Court (Umuahia Division), which also ordered his release and dismissed all charges related to the illegal rendition. Nigeria made no appeals. Nigeria did not comply.
2022—Justice Benson Anya of the Abia State High Court affirmed that the military invasion of Kanu’s residence in 2017, known as “Operation Python Dance,” was an attempt on his life by Nigerian security forces. Not an appeal. lack of responsibility.
“Hanatu Sankey, Oladotun Adefope-Okojie, and Ebiowei Tobi JJCA, Court of Appeal, Abuja Division, October 13, 2022.” In a landmark decision, the court declared that a retrial is unconstitutional under Section 36(9) CFRN because of double jeopardy and the illegality of Kanu’s rendition. As a result, Kanu was released and cleared of all charges. In Nigerian law, this acquittal is final. However, Nigeria disregarded it and used Tsammani JCA to create judicial fraud in order to reverse it.
2022: The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (Opinion No. 38/2022) declared that his detention was unlawful, discriminatory, and arbitrary in all respects, and they called for his immediate release and compensation. Nigeria continues to violate the law. 2023: Justice Onuoha Onovo of the Enugu State High Court ruled that the Nigerian government’s treatment of IPOB members amounts to systematic ethnic discrimination against the Igbo people. Nigeria disregards the decision.
2025: The Kenyan High Court declared that the operation was an unlawful rendition that violated Kenyan sovereignty and that Kenya had never approved Kanu’s transfer. It mandated accountability and redress. Nigeria’s refusal to comply exacerbates the diplomatic consequences.
According to the statement, “all of these rulings demonstrate one thing: Nigeria is conducting a politically orchestrated persecution, not a legitimate prosecution.”
The Court of Appeal’s Justice Muhammad Lawal Tsammani panel, which overturned the court’s previous acquittal of the IPOB leader on October 13, 2022, was denounced by the activists.
“The most egregious judicial fraud in Nigeria occurred in October 2022,” the statement continued. The Nigerian government formed a panel headed by Justice Muhammad Lawal Tsammani following the valid Court of Appeal acquittal on October 13. The panel used Order 6 Rule 1 of the Court of Appeal Rules, a civil procedure clause, to “stay” a criminal acquittal in a move never seen in Nigerian, African, or Commonwealth jurisprudence.
“On its face, this is illegal. A criminal acquittal cannot be overturned by civil procedure. In Nigeria, no. In the UK, no. In the US, no. Not anywhere on earth. Such doctrinal cross-contamination is prohibited by Supreme Court rulings in cases like Abacha v. State and FRN v. Anache.
“The Tsammani decision was not a law.
The foundation of the current constitutional crisis is still judicial sabotage, which was orchestrated by the executive branch.
The Abuja Federal High Court, led by Justice James Omotosho, was accused by the activists of “open constitutional defiance.”
The statement claims that the judge “knowingly forced Kanu to plead to a void, repealed, and non-existent law — first Criminal Code Cap C45 (repealed), then Customs & Excise Management Act 2004 (also repealed)” in spite of the Supreme Court’s clear directive to amend Count 7 to conform to an existing statute.
It further stated that the court declined to address the double criminality requirement under TPPA 2022, which includes the existence of a formal arrest of judgment motion, multiple domestic orders requiring Kanu’s release, the binding 2022 Court of Appeal acquittal, and the constitutional bar on prosecution under a repealed law (CFRN §36(12)).
“He has shut down jurisdictional objections without a hearing, foreclosed addresses, and now intends to deliver judgment—an act that would be a null and void judicial nullity.” There is no judicial error here. The activists said, “It is intentional cooperation with executive malfeasance.
Nigeria’s ongoing noncompliance has put it in violation of its own Constitution, the African Charter, UN conventions, fundamental principles of a fair trial, and anti-rendition law, the campaigners said, urging the international community to “act now.”
Therefore, the Rising Sun Foundation called for the UN Human Rights Council to look into Nigeria’s systematic judicial abuses, international sanctions on Nigerian officials involved for disobedience, and the prompt enforcement of all current acquittals and court orders.
The activists also demanded international pressure to compel adherence to both domestic and international decisions.
Nigeria’s judiciary is in danger of being irreparably destroyed. A state is disintegrating from within when it disobeys its own courts. We firmly support the Igbo nation, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, and all Nigerians who seek justice. The activists declared that “the world must stand with us.”
