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Kanu’s Special Counsel, Barrister Aloy Ejimakor, told SaharaReporters that the adjournment was granted because the court requested the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) to submit a report on Kanu’s health to determine whether the IPOB leader remains fit to stand trial.
The Federal High Court in Abuja has again adjourned the case of the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, to October 16, 2025.
Kanu’s Special Counsel, Barrister Aloy Ejimakor, told SaharaReporters that the adjournment was granted because the court requested the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) to submit a report on Kanu’s health to determine whether the IPOB leader remains fit to stand trial.
“Again, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu’s case has been adjourned to the 16th of October, 2025. Reason: The Court wants the Nigerian Medical Association to submit a report on whether Mazi Nnamdi Kanu is ‘still fit to stand trial,’” Ejimakor told SaharaReporters on Wednesday.
SaharaReporters earlier reported that Kanu appeared at the Federal High Court in Abuja on Wednesday for the continuation of his long-running trial on charges related to terrorism.
Kanu’s appearance marked yet another phase in a case that has drawn national and international attention since his re-arrest and extraordinary rendition to Nigeria in June 2021.
His supporters, human rights groups, and lawyers have consistently maintained that his detention and trial violate his fundamental rights and court orders.
Kanu, a British-Nigerian political activist and leader of IPOB, a group agitating for an independent state of Biafra from Nigeria’s South-East, was first arrested in 2015 and charged with treasonable felony, among other offences.
He was granted bail in April 2017 but fled the country after a military operation at his home in Abia State later that year.
In June 2021, he was intercepted and brought back to Nigeria under controversial circumstances widely described by his legal team as “extraordinary rendition” from Kenya.
The Nigerian Government subsequently amended the charges against him, increasing them to 15 counts, including alleged terrorism and incitement through his radio broadcasts.
Although the Court of Appeal later struck out several of the charges in October 2022, which also discharged and acquitted him of the remaining counts, the Nigerian Government appealed the ruling at the Supreme Court.
The apex court, in December 2023, set aside the appellate court’s decision, allowing the trial to resume at the Federal High Court.
Since then, Kanu’s legal team has repeatedly raised concerns over his deteriorating health, restricted access to his lawyers, and the government’s refusal to obey previous court orders granting him bail or transferring him to a more conducive detention facility.
SaharaReporters reported on Tuesday, October 7, 2025, that IPOB rejected what it described as a “purported medical report” allegedly prepared by the NMA on Kanu’s health condition.
The group warned against tendering the alleged purported NMA medical report before the Federal High Court, Abuja, during Kanu's appearance on Wednesday, October 8, 2025.
In a statement signed by Barrister Chukwuma Benson Ihejiofor on behalf of the IPOB Legal Advisory Directorate, the group alleged that the document, dated September 22, 2025, is “invalid, inadmissible, and ethically compromised,” adding that it was produced before the court’s order authorising an independent medical examination and at the instance of the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF).
According to IPOB, the report violates both judicial authority and medical ethics, accusing the NMA of colluding with the AGF and the Department of State Services (DSS) to manipulate evidence and obstruct justice.
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