…Writes UN ,AU,Common Wealth ,IHRO
The family of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu has flayed the call for the granting of amnesty to the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, arguing that amnesty is for people who have committed a crime or have been convicted by a court of law.
In a statement issued by Prince Emmanuel Kanu on behalf of the family to the global community, including the United Nations, African Union, Commonwealth, international human rights organizations, foreign missions, and all advocates of justice and freedom.
The family condemned what it described a “reprehensible and legally indefensible proposal by the Nigerian Consultative Forum ,NCF to grant pardon to the detained IPOB leader and demanded immediate global action to address “a gross miscarriage of justice and an assault on the rule of law.
It would be recalled that at a press conference in Abuja, NCF Chairman Dede Uzor Uzor and Secretary-General Dr. Frank Udemadu, called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to grant “amnesty” to both Abba Kyari.
However, the family described Kyari as an alleged criminal facing trial on drugs related and money laundering charges, and Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, a superior court-acquitted leader of a peaceful self-determination movement.
According to the family, the call for amnesty to the two men is a “conflation of a globally recognized political prisoner with an individual accused of heinous crimes is not merely offensive—it is a calculated act of defamation, an affront to justice, and deliberate attempt to undermine the rule of law.”
The Kanu Family condemned the call and called on the international community to denounce the misrepresentation.
The family asserted that Nnamdi Kanu is innocent, adding that amnesty is for criminals.
It said that Nnamdi Kanu was discharged and acquitted by the Nigerian Court of Appeal, “a decision rooted in the jurisdictional nullity of his unlawful rendition. Under Section 36(9) of the 1999 Nigerian Constitution, an acquittal by a superior court of record is final and inviolable, even by the Supreme Court.
It argued that “the suggestion of “amnesty” for an innocent man is an insult to justice and a mockery of Nigeria’s constitutional framework.”
According to the family, the Supreme Court’s subsequent decision to remand Nnamdi Kanu for trial is a flagrant violation of constitutional law, an act the Kanu Family denounced “as a criminal desecration of Nigeria’s judiciary and a betrayal of democratic principles. Mazi Nnamdi Kanu is not a candidate for mercy—he is a victim of state-sponsored persecution, entitled to immediate and unconditional release.”
The family argued that equating Nnamdi Kanu with Abba Kyari, who faces allegations of drug trafficking and money laundering in the United States, was unacceptable.
It posited that Nnamdi Kanu is the leader of IPOB, adding that his “unlawful abduction from Kenya in 2021, in violation of international law, Kenyan sovereignty, and human rights ,marks Nigeria as a state willing to flout global norms to silence dissent.”
The Kanu Family called on the international community to recognize that Nnamdi Kanu’s detention is a direct assault on judicial independence, constitutional integrity, and international human rights law and condemn “Nigeria’s defiance of its own judiciary and its violation of global norms through the illegal rendition and continued detention of an acquitted man.
The family urged the global community to act to secure the immediate and unconditional release of Nnamdi Kanu in line with the Court of Appeal’s binding judgment.
