IPOB leader Nnamdi Kanu has petitioned U.S. President Donald Trump, the African Union, and other international bodies, seeking urgent intervention for his release from what he calls unlawful detention since June 2021
Leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, has appealed to U.S. President Donald Trump, the African Union, and several foreign governments and rights groups to intervene in what he described as his “unlawful captivity” in Nigeria.
In a petition dated August 22, 2025, Kanu said he has been held in solitary confinement since June 2021 despite being discharged and acquitted by the Court of Appeal in October 2022. He faulted the Supreme Court’s December 15, 2023 ruling that reversed the acquittal, describing it as “perverse and unconstitutional.”
“The Supreme Court’s lawlessness, compounded by the Court of Appeal’s illegal stay of execution, undermines the rule of law,” he wrote.
Kanu accused the judiciary of political bias, the UK of complicity, and called for international sanctions if Nigeria fails to comply. He warned that his continued detention represents “a systemic collapse of the rule of law in Nigeria.”