*Urges Supreme Court, Court Of Appeal To Hear Pending Cases
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The Okwu-Kanu family has called on Nigeria’s appellate courts to urgently list and hear two pending cases involving the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, arguing that the speed with which the judicial process moved in 2022 to prevent his release should now be matched in determining challenges relating to his continued detention and life sentence.
In a statement issued by Emmanuel Kanu on behalf of the family, the Okwu-Kanu family said Kanu had written separately to the Chief Justice of Nigeria and the President of the Court of Appeal requesting the immediate scheduling of the pending matters.
The family said the Federal Government had shown “no sign of willingness to join issues” in either proceeding, while Kanu remains in detention serving a life sentence.
Drawing a comparison with events in 2022, the family recalled that on October 13, 2022, the Court of Appeal delivered a judgment discharging Kanu and quashing the criminal counts against him.
The family described that decision as an “acquittal-equivalent discharge.”
According to the statement, the Federal Government did not release Kanu following the judgment and, by October 28, 2022, had filed, listed, argued and obtained a stay of execution from a differently constituted panel of the Court of Appeal.
The family argued that the order prevented Kanu from enjoying the liberty granted by the earlier judgment despite what it described as the final determination of the criminal appeal.
“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 statement said.
It further described the use of a civil procedure in relation to what it said was an already concluded criminal proceeding as a “constitutionally impermissible hybridisation.”
The family said the speed with which the 2022 proceedings were handled stood in sharp contrast with the pace of Kanu’s current cases.
According to the statement, Kanu commenced a proceeding before the Supreme Court on November 7, 2025, challenging the legality of the court’s remittal judgment delivered on December 15, 2023.
The family said the Federal Republic of Nigeria was served with the processes but alleged that, more than nine months later, no substantive response had been filed and the matter had not been listed for hearing.
It also pointed to a separate appeal pending before the Court of Appeal against Kanu’s November 20, 2025 conviction and life sentence.
According to the family, Kanu’s Appellant’s Brief was filed on June 5, 2026 and served on the respondent.
It said the time allowed for the Federal Government to file its Respondent’s Brief had expired, but no brief had been filed and the appeal had also not been listed for hearing.
“When the Federal Government wanted to prevent Mazi Nnamdi Kanu from enjoying his acquittal-equivalent discharge: fourteen days. When Mazi Nnamdi Kanu asks the courts to determine whether his continued detention and life sentence are lawful: months of waiting. Why?” the family asked.
The Okwu-Kanu family stressed that Kanu was not asking the courts for a predetermined outcome but only seeking an opportunity to have the pending legal questions determined.
It therefore called on the Supreme Court to list and hear the proceeding challenging the December 15, 2023 remittal judgment.
The family also urged the Court of Appeal to list and determine Kanu’s appeal against his conviction and life sentence “without further delay.”
It further called on the Federal Government to appear in the proceedings and defend the judicial outcomes upon which Kanu’s continued detention rests.
The family disclosed that it would formally notify the United States Congress, the Israeli Knesset and the International Bar Association about what it described as an unacceptable delay in the determination of the cases.
According to the statement, relevant court records and a chronology of events would be forwarded to the institutions, with the family seeking to raise what it described as a central question over the differing pace of the judicial process.
It asked why Nigeria’s appellate machinery could, in its account, move within 14 days in 2022 when the Federal Government sought to prevent Kanu’s release, but had not shown similar urgency now that Kanu was seeking judicial determination of the legality of his continued detention and life sentence.
“There cannot be emergency justice when the State seeks detention and slow justice when the citizen seeks liberty,” the family said.
“Justice delayed is justice denied.”
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