Kanu Asks Supreme Court To Set Aside Judgment Ordering His Retrial

The detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, on Monday, filed a fresh motion at the Supreme Court, urging the apex court to review its judgment delivered in the suit between him and the federal government marked (SC/CR/1361/2022).

Kanu in the motion sought an order of the apex court “extending the time within which the applicant may seek leave to apply for an order reviewing the judgment of this Honourable Court delivered on the 18th December 2023 in FRN v. Nnamdi Kanu (SC/CR/1361/2022), reasonable time having expired since the delivery of the Judgment.”

A copy of the motion cited by THE WHISTLER read, ”AN ORDER granting leave to the Applicant to apply for an Order reviewing the aforesaid Judgment of this Honourable Court delivered on the 15th December 2023 in FRN v. Nnamdi Kanu (SC/CR/1361/2022) on the grounds set out in this application.

“AN ORDER extending the time within which the Applicant may file the Application for review of the aforesaid judgment delivered on the 15th December 2023 in FRN v. Nnamdi Kanu (SC/CR/1361/2022) and further deeming the said Application for review as properly filed and served in this suit. And for such further orders as this Honourable Court may deem necessary to make in the circumstances.

“The judgment sought to be impugned was delivered on 18 December 2023. By reason of the applicant’s continuous state custody and the prior external conduct of his defence, he was incapacitated from personally reviewing or acting upon the implications of the said judgment until very recently.

“On or about 21 October 2025, the Applicant assumed full carriage and control of his case, thereby asserting his constitutional right to self-representation and immediate oversight of his legal cause. On 26 October 2025, he obtained access to his complete case file for the first time since his incarceration.

“Upon a meticulous examination of the record, the Applicant discovered, with profound juridical concern, that the judgment of this Honourable Court of 15 December 2023 was delivered per curiam—having been predicated upon statutes which, at the material time, had ceased to exist in law.

“The decision, though solemn in pronouncement, was therefore made sub silentio of the extant Terroriam (Prevention and Prohibition) Act 2022, and stands in patent violation of Section 36(12) of the Constitution and Section 122 of the Evidence Act 2011.

“Upon this discovery, the Applicant acted with utmost dispatch and fidelity to the law, instructing the preparation of a Motion to Set Aside the said judgment, and promptly bringing this companion application for enlargement of time solely to regularise that procedural step.

“The brief interlude between the judgment and the instant application is thus neither wilful nor dilatory but the inevitable consequence of constrained custodial conditions and the subsequent discovery of a jurisdictional aberration only after the applicant personally obtained his record.

“The complaint now raised touches the very root of jurisdiction — a domain to which time and technicality pay no homage. The equitable discretion of this Honourable Court is therefore humbly invited to extend the time ex debito justitiae for the correction of a manifest nullity and the restoration of constitutional order.

Kanu’s younger brother, Prince Emmanuel Kanu, in a supporting affidavit, urged the apex court to grant the prayers sought by the IPOB’s leader.

The affidavit read, “That I am the Applicant’s younger brother herein, the Respondent in the substantive Appeal No. SC/CR/1361/2022 — Federal Republic of Nigeria v. Nnamdi Kanu — wherein judgment was delivered by this
Honourable Court on 15 December 2023. My brother, the Applicant, is currently in detention and unable to depose to this affidavit.

“That since the delivery of the said judgment, my brother had remained in the custody of the respondent under conditions that severely restricted his access to counsel, to case materials, and to the certified record of proceedings.

“That until recently, the prosecution and management of his cause were conducted exclusively through external counsel, and he was neither in possession of the files nor in a position to scrutinise the processes filed on his behalf.

“That on or about 21 October 2025, he resolved to personally assume the carriage and control of his case, in order to ensure a thorough personal review and to pursue appropriate redress where
necessary.

“That on 26th October 2025, he was granted access to his complete case file, which he studied line by line. In the course of this examination, he discovered that the judgment of this Honourable Court delivered on 15th December 2023 was, with respect, delivered per incuriam, as it rested upon statutes which had been repealed and displaced by subsequent enactment at the time material to the appeal.

“That upon making this discovery, he immediately resolved to file a Motion to set aside the said judgment, and this present application for extension of time is brought promptly, in good