The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) says the appeal process challenging the conviction and life sentence of its leader, Nnamdi Kanu, has formally begun at the Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal last Friday.
In a statement issued by spokesperson Emma Powerful, IPOB claimed that the Nigerian government, through its cross-appeal, effectively admitted that Justice James Omotosho acted without jurisdiction when he sentenced Kanu to life imprisonment in November 2025 instead of death penalty.
According to IPOB, if the trial court lacked jurisdiction to impose a sentence, then the conviction itself cannot stand, since both are legally inseparable. The group argued that the government’s position undermines the judgment it is seeking to defend and raises broader concerns about the credibility of the judiciary.
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IPOB also reiterated its earlier argument that Kanu’s conviction was based on a law that had already been repealed. The group said the appeal now goes beyond Kanu’s case and has become a test of whether established principles of Nigerian criminal law and constitutional justice will be upheld.
“A court either possesses jurisdiction throughout the proceedings or it does not. That 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 said.
The Nigerian government has filed a cross-appeal in response to Kanu’s appeal on Friday, and the Court of Appeal is expected to determine the legal issues raised by both sides. IPOB urged local and international observers to closely monitor the proceedings.
