By Editorial Staff 
Human rights activist Omoyele Sowore has accused the Bola Tinubu-led government of planning to “kill” Nnamdi Kanu in detention. Kanu is the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), a separatist group in the southeast geopolitical zone of Nigeria.
Sowore, the founder and presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC) in the 2019 and 2023 presidential elections, stated this on Wednesday, November 5, 2025, on his Facebook page.
In what he described as “a high-level political conspiracy,” he said the plan “is to either sentence him to death or condemn him to life imprisonment,” claiming that “it is now being dressed up in the guise of judicial procedure.”
He claimed that a trial judge had already been designated to hand down the sentence to the IPOB leader, banking on the argument that Kanu’s “refusal to open his defence amounts to an admission of guilt,” which he said could be “a convenient interpretation designed to seal a verdict already agreed upon behind closed doors.”
The human rights activist, who reminisced on the sentencing and killing of Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other Ogoni activists in November 1995 by the military tribunal of General Sani Abacha, said Nigeria cannot continue on the same sad trajectory.
His allegation coincides with renewed calls for the freedom of the IPOB leader by his supporters on social media, especially on X (formerly Twitter).
Nnamdi Kanu was said to have been arrested in Kenya on June 27, 2021, and extradited to Nigeria on the order of the government under former President Muhammadu Buhari. He has been facing trials on multiple charges, including terrorism, treason, involvement with a banned separatist movement, inciting public violence through radio broadcasts, and defamation of Nigerian authorities through broadcasts.
The Federal High Court in Abuja had, on Tuesday, given him today (November 5, 2025) to defend the terrorism charges filed against him or risk waiving his right to do so. But Kanu said his trial had no legal basis when he appeared before the court.
Recall that Nnamdi Kanu’s legal team, led by former Attorney General Kanu Agabi, withdrew from his trial on October 23, 2025, after Kanu told the court that he would be defending himself.