The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has declared that the Federal Government’s Cross-Appeal against the Federal High Court’s judgement in Abuja contains a damning admission that the trial court acted without jurisdiction when it imposed a life sentence on the group’s leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.

In a press statement issued to IgbereTV on June 7, 2026, and signed by IPOB spokesperson Emma Powerful, the group noted that in the Notice of Cross-Appeal filed against Justice J.K. Omotosho’s November 20, 2025 judgement, the Federal Government unequivocally stated that the trial court acted without jurisdiction when it imposed life imprisonment on counts 1, 2, 4, 5, and 6.

According to IPOB, the Federal Government’s admission that the sentencing phase was performed without jurisdiction means that the entire sentencing process is null and void from the start, because jurisdiction is not divisible and cannot be split between conviction and sentencing.

Citing the Supreme Court’s ruling in Madukolu v. Nkemdilim (1962), IPOB contended that if a court lacks jurisdiction, all proceedings, no matter how carefully handled, are null and invalid. The organization further contended that the Court of Appeal lacks the authority to fix what the Federal Government has pronounced jurisdictionally dead.

The organization insisted that the Cross-Appeal would not force Kanu to abandon Biafra, calling him as the “reincarnation of the indomitable Biafran spirit.”

Read the statement below;

“We call on the Court of Appeal to do justice by dismissing the Cross-Appeal with ignominy and allowing the Appellant’s main appeal in its entirety, leading to the immediate and unconditional release of Onyendu Mazi Nnamdi Kanu,”