The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has condemned what it described as a travesty of justice and a gross abuse of judicial discretion in the ruling delivered by Justice James Omotosho of the Federal High Court, Abuja, which upheld the report of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) that the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, is medically fit to stand trial.

Reacting to the ruling, the rights group said the judgment represented “a judicial robbery and an orchestrated political persecution,” accusing the Federal Government, through the Presidency and the Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation, of pursuing a sinister agenda to further destabilize the South East.

HURIWA questioned the constitution of an NMA panel to assess Kanu’s health, describing it as an unprecedented and discriminatory act in Nigeria’s judicial history. The association argued that no other politically exposed defendant had ever been subjected to such external medical verification before being granted leave to seek treatment, asserting that the court’s decision violated Section 42 of the 1999 Constitution, which forbids discrimination based on ethnicity or circumstance.

The rights group cited several high-profile cases in which courts had allowed defendants facing corruption or other criminal charges to travel abroad or receive medical care without setting up any government-controlled medical panels. These include the January 2025 decision by an FCT High Court granting former Taraba State Governor Darius Ishaku permission to travel to the United Arab Emirates for medical check-up despite facing a N27 billion fraud charge; the July 2022 ruling permitting former Imo State Governor Rochas Okorocha to travel to the United Kingdom for medical attention; and the 2015 Federal High Court order authorizing former National Security Adviser Col. Sambo Dasuki (rtd) to travel abroad for medical treatment.

Other precedents listed by HURIWA include former Bayelsa State Governor Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, who received court-approved medical leave during his corruption trial in the mid-2000s; former Imo Governor Ikedi Ohakim, who was granted permission by a Federal High Court in 2016 to travel overseas for treatment; and ex-Jigawa Governor Saminu Turaki, whom a Federal High Court allowed to travel abroad in 2017 for medical reasons.

According to HURIWA, “When former governors and politically exposed individuals accused of looting billions of public funds can walk into court and obtain leave to travel abroad for medical treatment without any government-sponsored medical examination, it is clear that what happened to Nnamdi Kanu is pure discrimination and political witch-hunt.”

The group further argued that the ruling appeared choreographed to align with the recent statement made by presidential aide Bayo Onanuga, who said Kanu should remain in detention and “get what he deserves.” HURIWA described this as an open display of executive interference in judicial matters, adding that the judge’s decision seems to have followed the same script dictated by the Presidency rather than being guided by the law.

According to HURIWA, the latest development reinforces the suspicion that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration, through the office of the Attorney-General of the Federation, is determined to keep the South East politically unstable by unjustly prolonging Kanu’s detention despite growing national consensus that his release would help restore peace in the region.

HURIWA said it was particularly disturbing that while a man like Bello Bodejo, National President of Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore; an association whose members have been accused of issuing inflammatory statements justifying killings and leading armed herders, was recently released from DSS custody after a controversial arrest in 2024, the same justice system continues to detain Kanu in defiance of several previous court rulings ordering his release. The association described this disparity as “ethnic bias taken too far,” accusing the Tinubu administration of shielding those with links to violent groups while criminalizing self-determination agitators.

The human rights body said such selective justice undermines national unity, breeds resentment, and fuels the same insecurity the government claims to be fighting. It called on Justice Omotosho to review his decision in line with constitutional fairness and the principle of equality before the law.

In a related development, HURIWA also took a swipe at the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) for warning Nigerians against staging peaceful protests over Kanu’s continued detention, calling the statement “shameful, irresponsible, and unworthy of a professional body that claims to defend human rights and constitutional freedoms.”

HURIWA said it was appalled that instead of standing with the oppressed, the NBA is “now acting like a sycophantic mouthpiece of the Federal Government.” It condemned the association’s leadership under Afam Osigwe (SAN), insisting that if the statement indeed came from him, it exposes a deep moral decay within the Bar. However, the group challenged Osigwe to disown the statement if it did not emanate from him, saying it should not be allowed to stand as the official position of the NBA.

According to HURIWA, the right to peaceful assembly and protest is a fundamental constitutional liberty and the lifeblood of democracy, not a privilege to be dictated by those in power. “It is an abomination for a lawyers’ association, whose founding principle is the defence of justice and human rights, to be the one gagging citizens from expressing dissent. This is cowardice in its worst form,” the statement read.

HURIWA restated its call for the unconditional release of Nnamdi Kanu, insisting that the continued detention of the IPOB leader has become an instrument of collective punishment against the Igbo people. The association said Nigeria cannot build peace on the foundation of injustice and political persecution, warning that until the courts rise above ethnic bias and external influence, the country’s democracy will continue to decay under the weight of selective justice.