The Abia State House of Assembly has written to President Bola Tinubu, demanding the unconditional release of Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).
The demand follows a resolution passed by the House on November 10, describing Kanu’s prolonged detention as a matter of urgent public importance.
Mr Kanu was extraordinarily renditioned from Kenya in 2021, and was illegally brought back to the country by the Nigerian government.
The IPOB leader who has since been charged for alleged terrorism, is due to be sentenced on 20th of November 2025, at an Abuja federal high court presided over by Justice James Omotosho.
During the trial, Mr Kanu, declined to enter defense, arguing that the law upon which he is being tried had been repealed. He repeatedly maintained that the court lack jurisdiction to try him and that there was no charges against him.
The Abia assembly resolution, moved by the Deputy Speaker Austin Meregini (Umuahia East State Constituency), urged Tinubu to invoke Section 174(c) of the Constitution, which empowers the Attorney-General of the Federation to enter a nolle prosequi and terminate criminal proceedings before judgement is delivered.
The House also cited the recent presidential pardon granted by Tinubu as a precedent for compassionate intervention. In the open letter to the President, the 24-member House highlighted Kanu’s detention history, noting that he was first arrested in 2015 and detained for over two years before being granted bail.
The letter appealed to Tinubu to consider Kanu’s release as a gesture of goodwill, stressing that it could contribute to peace, stability and national reconciliation in the South-East.
The House described the release as a constructive political measure that aligns with the President’s vision for a united and prosperous Nigeria. The open letter was signed by all 24 members of the Assembly, including the Speaker.
Meanwhile, Kanu has filed a N50 billion lawsuit against the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) for allegedly submitting a false medical report in his terrorism trial at the Federal High Court in Abuja.
KANU, in his fresh suit at the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court, Abuja, also sought an order compelling the NMA to conduct a proper, independent medical examination of him by competent specialists not connected with the defendants in the instant suit.
The IPOB leader sued as defendants the NMA, its president, Bala Audi, and members of the team that issued the medical report, including medical doctors Benjamin Egbon, Prof Emem Abraham, Ajibare Adeola, Temitope Farombi, Sunday Owolade, Mustapha Salihu, Yarima Yusuf, Nwosu Ekeoma and Benjamin Olowojebutu.
The suit, marked CV/4584/25 and filed on November 12 by lawyer Maxwell Opara, was made available to journalists on Saturday. The disputed medical report, which is at the heart of the new lawsuit, prompted Judge James Omotosho, who oversees Kanu’s terrorism trial at the Federal High Court in Abuja, to declare him medically fit to continue facing prosecution last month.
