By Abiola Olawale
Following the protracted legal saga of Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), his case has been officially reassigned to a new judge at the Federal High Court in Abuja.
The reassignment, confirmed by Kanu’s legal team on Saturday, March 8, 2025, follows months of procedural disputes and allegations of bias that have delayed the trial.
Kanu, who has been in detention since his extradition from Kenya in June 2021, is facing charges of terrorism and treasonable felony linked to his advocacy for the secession of Nigeria’s southeastern region to form a sovereign Biafran state.
The reassignment comes after Justice Binta Nyako, who had presided over the case since its inception, recused herself in September 2024 following Kanu’s repeated claims of bias and lack of confidence in her handling of the matter.
Despite her recusal, the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Justice John Tsoho, initially returned the case file to Justice Nyako, prompting further objections from Kanu’s legal team.
This led to a petition by Kanu to the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, requesting her intervention to ensure a proper reassignment.
In a statement released on Saturday, Kanu’s lead counsel, Aloy Ejimakor, expressed gratitude to the CJN for her “prompt administrative intervention” and commended her for upholding due process.
The statement reads in part: “Yesterday before the legal team conducted our routine visitation to Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, we received two separate official letters regarding his case. The letters are momentous and somewhat pyrrhic.
“One letter was from the Honourable Chief Justice of Nigeria, responding to a recent letter we had written to her, seeking her prompt administrative intervention (as the administrative head of Nigerian judiciary) on the matter of a proper and lawful reassignment of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu’s case, following the recusal of the Judge that was conducting it.
“The other letter was from the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, informing us that the case has been reassigned to another Judge of the Federal High Court.
“Consequent upon these latest developments, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu instructed the legal team to publicly convey his sincere gratitude to the Chief Justice of Nigeria for her sound administrative discretions and the despatch with which she responded to our request.
“He also expressed his profound appreciation to members of the general public who publicly expressed their support to our righteous demands that Mazi Nnamdi Kanu’s case be reassigned to another Judge, as the law demands.
“To be sure, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu has always been ready to take his trial because he is firmly convinced of his innocence. But the perverse events of the past six months (from September 2024, when the recusal happened) posed portent dangers to his constitutional rights, particularly his right to a fair and speedy hearing.
“It was given these untoward developments that we were propelled to resort to taking extraordinary measures to ensure that his case is properly reassigned and conducted by the law.
“So, now that the first steps have been taken by the authorities to do the lawful thing, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu and his legal team shall take stock and hanker down to the zealous preparation of his defence.”
