During an ongoing congressional hearing on alleged persecution of Christians in Nigeria, U.S. Congressman John James criticized the Nigerian judicial system, citing today’s life sentencing of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu as a glaring example of systemic injustice.
Kanu, leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), was sentenced to life imprisonment by Justice James Omotosho of the Federal High Court in Abuja on Thursday. He was convicted on seven counts related to terrorism, including acts of violence, threats against security operatives, and issuing a sit-at-home order in South-Eastern states.
Highlighting the case in Congress, Congressman James said, “Mazi Nnamdi Kanu is a clear example of Nigeria’s failing judicial system. Despite a 2022 Court of Appeals ruling ordering his release, and calls from the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention for his unconditional release, he remains in solitary confinement in deteriorating health, and today, he has been sentenced to life in prison.”
He further questioned the U.S. role in supporting Nigeria, asking, “For fiscal year 2025, the U.S. has requested nearly $8 billion for sub-Saharan Africa, but when Americans see political prisoners, judicial defiance, and the slaughter of Christians, they understandably ask, why should our tax dollars support governments that refuse to protect their own people? Is our aid aiding a genocide?”
Congressman James also warned that continued targeting of Christians and political actors threatens Nigeria’s stability, stressing, “No country can build a stable future where churches are burned, believers are killed, and communities live in fear. The international community must hold Nigeria accountable for these actions.”
Today’s sentencing marks a dramatic development in Kanu’s protracted legal saga, which began in 2015 with his initial arrest on charges of treasonable felony and terrorism, followed by years of bail controversies, disappearance, and eventual re-arrest in Kenya in 2021.
