By Peter Onyekachukwu 
By Peter Onyekachukwu
United States attorney to the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Bruce Fein, has written to Justice James Omotosho of the Federal High Court in Abuja, demanding the dismissal of all charges against Mazi Nnamdi Kanu for lack of jurisdiction.
In a letter dated October 28, 2025, titled “Dismissal of prosecution of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu for lack of jurisdiction,” Fein argued that the Nigerian government should not profit from what he described as its own “criminality” in Kanu’s extraordinary rendition from Kenya to Nigeria in 2021.
Fein cited a 1928 opinion by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis in Olmstead v. United States, stressing that governments undermine the rule of law when they themselves break it. “No government should profit from its own criminality. That has been binding law from time immemorial,” Fein wrote.
Quoting Brandeis, he warned that when governments disregard the law, they teach citizens to do the same, saying, “If the government becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself.”
The U.S. lawyer said both the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention and Nigerian courts have acknowledged that the Federal Government committed multiple violations — including kidnapping, torture, and extraordinary rendition — to secure Kanu’s return, acts he described as jus cogens crimes under international law.
According to him, such grave violations strip Nigerian courts of any legal authority to continue the trial. He referred to the UN Working Group’s July 20, 2022, opinion directing the Nigerian government to grant Kanu “immediate unconditional release.”
Fein warned Justice Omotosho that failure to dismiss the case would implicate the court in those alleged crimes. “If you refrain from dismissing all outstanding charges against Mr. Kanu for lack of jurisdiction, you will be legally implicated in the crimes perpetrated by the Government of Nigeria,” he stated, adding that such action could expose the judge to prosecution before the International Criminal Court.
The Nigerian government has maintained that Kanu faces terrorism-related charges before the Federal High Court in Abuja, though his legal team insists the manner of his arrest renders the prosecution illegal.
Kanu, who was renditioned from Kenya in June 2021, has refused to enter his defence, insisting that the court lacks jurisdiction. His lawyers, led by Barrister Aloy Ejimakor, have accused the government of flouting court orders granting him bail and directing his release.
Justice Omotosho now presides over the matter after its transfer from Justice Binta Nyako, who earlier ruled that Kanu must stand trial despite objections. The IPOB leader remains in the custody of the Department of State Services (DSS) amid growing international criticism of his continued detention.