The family of convicted Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) leader, Nnamdi Kanu, says he has written to the Chief Justice of Nigeria and the President of the Court of Appeal demanding that his pending cases be listed and heard without further delay.
The Okwu-Kanu Family disclosed this in a statement on Tuesday, accusing the Federal Government of failing to file substantive responses in two proceedings despite the passage of several months.
According to the family, Kanu began proceedings at the Supreme Court on November 7, 2025, challenging the legality of the apex court’s December 15, 2023, remittal judgment. It said the Federal Government was served with the case but had not, based on the family’s records, filed a substantive response or taken steps that resulted in the matter being listed for hearing.
The family also said Kanu has a separate appeal before the Court of Appeal challenging his November 20, 2025, conviction and life sentence. It argued that both matters require urgent judicial attention, particularly given Kanu’s continued detention.
The family questioned what it described as a sharp contrast between the speed of judicial action when the Federal Government sought to prevent Kanu’s release in 2022 and the pace of his current legal challenges. It pointed to the October 13, 2022, Court of Appeal judgment that discharged Kanu and quashed the criminal charges against him.
It further recalled that 14 days after that judgment, the Federal Government obtained a civil stay of execution from a differently constituted panel of the Court of Appeal. The family argued that the criminal appeal had already been determined and that the court had therefore become functus officio in relation to the matter.
The Okwu-Kanu Family also challenged the use of civil procedure to sustain Kanu’s detention after the criminal charges had been quashed. It described the situation as an unprecedented “hybridisation” of civil and criminal procedure, arguing that a civil stay could not revive criminal charges that had already been set aside.
“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.
The family said Kanu was not asking for preferential treatment but for the same level of urgency in determining his pending cases. It added that the United States Congress, Israeli Knesset and International Bar Association would be formally notified about the issues it raised concerning the proceedings.
Kanu has remained in detention following his conviction and life sentence in November 2025. The latest move by his family is expected to put renewed attention on the pending appeals and the broader legal questions surrounding his detention.
