By Teddy Nwanunobi
The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has threatened that it will boycott the 2027 general elections across the South East and other parts of ‘Biafraland,’ if the Federal Government fails to list and hear the appeal of its detained leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu within 14 days.
The ultimatum was issued in a press statement released on Tuesday by IPOB’s spokesman, Emma Powerful, who said the development followed renewed concerns by Kanu’s family over the delay in hearing the appeal against the IPOB leader’s conviction and life sentence.
Powerful said Kanu had written to the Chief Justice of Nigeria and the President of the Court of Appeal, seeking the immediate listing and hearing of his pending cases.
He accused the Federal Government of avoiding the court after moving swiftly to secure Kanu’s conviction.
He warned that the group would consider mobilising for a boycott of the 2027 elections if the government failed to act within the stipulated period.
“IPOB is giving the Federal Government 14 days to list and hear Onyendu Mazi Nnamdi Kanu’s appeal. If they refuse, we will consider boycotting the coming elections across Biafraland and beyond. A government that cannot face its Court of Appeal has no right to demand our votes.
“The Federal Government has not filed a respondent’s brief; it has not listed the appeal, and it has not come to court. A country that rushed to convict is now too frightened to defend the conviction.
“The Federal Government was in a hurry to prosecute and convict Onyendu Mazi Nnamdi Kanu. Now that the conviction is before the Court of Appeal, that same urgency has disappeared. No meaningful progress. No urgency to defend the conviction.
“Nigeria must answer two simple questions: Under which extant written law was Mazi Nnamdi Kanu convicted on November 20, 2025? What specific crime, cognisable under Nigerian law, justifies his continued detention after nearly six years?” the statement read.
The group faulted the Supreme Court’s decision, which overturned Kanu’s discharge and acquittal by the Court of Appeal, insisting that the apex court exceeded its constitutional powers by pronouncing on individual counts that had already been quashed by the Court of Appeal.
It insisted that Nigeria must therefore defend both the conviction and the jurisdictional foundation upon which the resumed trial was built.
The statement also faulted those arguing that an election boycott would lead to rigging, insisting that a collective refusal to participate would send its own message.
“At some point, people must ask whether repeatedly participating in a process they believe is structurally incapable of delivering justice is itself the definition of political progress.
“A collective refusal to participate sends its own message: a people have withdrawn their consent from a system they no longer trust,” the statement added.