BREAKING: U.S. Urges Nigerian Court to Drop All Charges Against Nnamdi Kanu, Citing “Criminal Rendition” and Lack of Jurisdiction

Bruce Fein, the American attorney representing Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), has called on Nigeria’s Federal High Court in Abuja to dismiss all criminal charges against his client, insisting the court lacks jurisdiction because Kanu was unlawfully brought into the country.

In a strongly worded letter dated October 28, 2025, addressed to Justice James Omotosho and titled “Dismissal of Prosecution of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu for Lack of Jurisdiction,” Fein argued that Nigeria’s government should not be allowed to benefit from its own “criminal conduct” in the case.

“No government should profit from its own criminality. That has been the law since time immemorial,” Fein wrote, referencing the legal principle that justice forms the bedrock of governance and civil order.

Quoting U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis’s 1928 opinion in Olmstead v. United States, Fein stressed that governments erode the rule of law when they violate it themselves.

“In a government of laws, the existence of the government will be imperiled if it fails to observe the law scrupulously,” Fein quoted. “If the government becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law and invites anarchy.”

Fein stated that both the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention and Nigerian courts have already found that the Federal Government committed “multiple international crimes”  including kidnapping, torture, and extraordinary rendition  in its effort to seize Kanu from Kenya in June 2021.

Such offenses, Fein said, are jus cogens violations  universally prohibited crimes that nullify any legal proceedings arising from them. He cited paragraph 107 of the UN Working Group’s July 20, 2022 opinion, which directed Nigeria to release Kanu “immediately and unconditionally.”

Fein warned Justice Omotosho that continuing the trial would make the court complicit in these alleged illegalities.

“If you refuse to dismiss all charges against Mr. Kanu for lack of jurisdiction, you risk becoming legally implicated in the crimes committed by the Government of Nigeria,” he cautioned, adding that such involvement could expose the judge to possible prosecution before the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Meanwhile, the Nigerian government insists that Kanu must face terrorism-related charges before the Federal High Court in Abuja. However, his defense team maintains that his abduction and forced return from Kenya render the entire trial unlawful.

Kanu has consistently refused to enter his defense, arguing that the court has no authority to try him following his extraordinary rendition. His Nigerian counsel, Barrister Aloy Ejimakor, has repeatedly said the government’s defiance of court orders including rulings granting bail and directing Kanu’s release further invalidates the prosecution.

Justice Binta Nyako, who previously handled the matter, had ruled that Kanu must face trial.