Kanu writes CJN, Court of Appeal president; demands urgent hearing of cases

The family of the convicted leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, has disclosed that he has written to the Chief Justice of Nigeria and the President of the Court of Appeal, demanding the immediate listing and hearing of his pending cases.

The family, in a statement issued on Tuesday by the Okwu-Kanu Family, said the move followed what it described as the Federal Government’s failure to file substantive responses in the two proceedings despite the passage of several months.

According to the family, Kanu commenced proceedings before the Supreme Court on November 7, 2025, challenging the legality of the apex court’s December 15, 2023, remittal judgement.

It said the Federal Government was duly served but had, according to records available to the family, not filed a substantive response or caused the case to be listed for hearing more than nine months later.

The family also disclosed that Kanu has a separate appeal before the Court of Appeal challenging his November 20, 2025, conviction and life sentence.

The family questioned what it described as the disparity in the speed with which the judiciary acted when the Federal Government sought to prevent Kanu’s release in 2022 and the pace of proceedings concerning his current bid for freedom.

It recalled that the Court of Appeal, on October 13, 2022, delivered judgment discharging Kanu and quashing the criminal charges against him.

The family said that despite the judgment, the Federal Government obtained a civil stay of execution from a differently constituted panel of the Court of Appeal on October 28, 2022—14 days after the discharge.

It argued that the criminal appeal had already been finally determined and that the Court of Appeal was therefore functus officio.

The family further contended that civil procedure could not lawfully be used to sustain Kanu’s detention after the criminal charges against him had been quashed.

It described the development as an unprecedented “hybridisation” of civil and criminal procedure, arguing that a civil stay was neither a criminal charge nor a remand order and could not revive quashed criminal counts.

The statement said, “Fourteen days. In fourteen days, the machinery of the Court of Appeal moved from an acquittal-equivalent discharge to a civil stay that kept Mazi Nnamdi Kanu in detention.”

The family said it was now demanding the same urgency in handling Kanu’s pending cases, stressing that he was not seeking special treatment but a prompt determination of his appeals.

It added that the United States Congress, Israeli Knesset and International Bar Association would be formally notified of the issues surrounding Kanu’s cases.

Kanu has remained in detention following his conviction and life sentence in November 2025.