The Indigenous People of Biafra has described the recent arrest of Nnamdi Kanu’s personal physician, Emeritus Professor Martin Aghaji, as a desperate attempt by the Nigerian government to cover up ‘medical and legal fraud’ in the IPOB leader’s trial.
Aghaji, who was arrested at his residence in Independence Layout, Enugu, on Friday, had issued an independent report on Kanu’s health condition which countered the official version tendered by the Department of State Services, DSS, in the course of the IPOB leader’s trial before the Abuja Federal High Court.
It was gathered that the physician was released on Sunday. Although no reason has been given for the arrest, IPOB linked the development to Aghaji’s independent medical report which countered the official version presented by the DSS.
In a statement on Monday, IPOB spokesman, Emma Powerful, explained that after his arrest in Enugu, Aghaji was detained in Abuja and Lagos before he was released following intense pressure mounted on the DSS by Kanu’s lawyers and the Nigerian Medical Association, NMA.
The pro-Biafra group described the physician’s arrest as an assault on the medical profession in Nigeria.
“IPOB notes with cautious relief the release of Emeritus Professor Martin Aghaji, the preeminent cardio-thoracic surgeon and personal physician of our leader, Onyendu Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, from DSS detention in Lagos. He was seized in a midnight raid at his Enugu residence, dragged to Abuja and then Lagos, before being dumped after intense pressure from lawyers and the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA).
“We thank the lawyers of our leader for their prompt and courageous intervention in raising the alarm, and we especially commend the NMA for its swift and principled stand. Their intervention forced the DSS to blink. However, the fact that this distinguished medical icon — a man of global pedigree — could be abducted in the dead of night for simply telling the truth about our leader’s health condition is a national disgrace and a direct assault on the medical profession,” the statement said.
According to IPOB, what Professor Aghaji just endured is the daily reality for every legal and medical practitioner associated with Kanu’s case – “death threats, illegal detentions, blackmail, fear of disbarment, and the weaponisation of family members of judges as bait to achieve a predetermined outcome”.
IPOB specifically observed that as soon as Justice Binta Nyako of the Abuja Federal High Court – who was initially handling the terrorism trial – recused herself at Kanu’s insistence, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, case against her husband, ex-Adamawa governor Murtala Nyako, and son, which had lingered for years, was promptly dropped.
“By demanding her recusal, our leader removed the leverage that could have been used to pressure her into delivering a particular verdict. There was nothing left to dangle,” the statement said.
IPOB alleged that Aghaji’s arrest was part of a plot to cover up what it described as medical and legal fraud in Kanu’s trial.
“At the heart of this entire charade lies a medical and legal fraud unprecedented in the history of jurisprudence. On the 26th day of October 2025, Justice James Omotosho ordered the President of the Nigerian Medical Association to constitute a team of medical experts to examine a sick defendant — Onyendu Mazi Nnamdi Kanu — and submit a report to the court.
“No medical examination ever took place. Dr. Martin Aghaji, the personal physician of our leader, was deliberately excluded and never informed. No team of experts was ever constituted by the NMA President. Yet certain persons purporting to act on behalf of the NMA President issued a report dated 23rd October 2025 — three days before Justice Omotosho even gave the order for the examination to be conducted.
“This is not a mistake. This is forgery. This is fraud on the court. This is the killer question sitting at the very heart of the appeal now pending before the Court of Appeal. Because this question is unanswerable and would in all probability result in the setting aside of the conviction, the Nigerian authorities resorted to their familiar tactics of harassment, intimidation and abduction to compel Professor Aghaji to alter or suppress his independent medical opinion on the true state of health of our leader.
“Contrast this with the conduct of Justice James Omotosho himself. Faced with the same choice — to do the right thing or to do the bidding of power — he chose to do something alien to criminal law anywhere in the common law world: he convicted and sentenced a defendant in the absence of any subsisting and extant written law. Onyendu Mazi Nnamdi Kanu has become the first person in the entire history of common-law criminal jurisprudence to be convicted and sentenced under a repealed law. This is not justice. This is a judicial abomination,” the statement said.
IPOB, in the same vein, expressed concern that without the direct and sustained intervention of the international community, Kanu’s appeal, which is currently pending at the Court of Appeal, will see judges subjected to the same pressure that was brought to bear on Professor Aghaji. “The pattern is consistent: anyone who refuses to play ball is neutralised — through abduction, blackmail, or the dangling of family cases,” the group said.
IPOB called on the general public, human rights organisations, the United States, Israel, the United Kingdom, and every serious observer of Kanu’s case to go through the processes already filed by both parties at the Court of Appeal. “Read the records. Examine the timelines. Interrogate the so-called medical report of 23rd October 2025 against the court order of 26th October 2025. Scrutinise how a conviction was secured under a repealed law while an independent medical report exposing the fraud was suppressed through state terror.
“This case is not merely historic. It has the potential to mark the beginning of the end of the Nigerian judiciary as we know it. When midnight raids on eminent surgeons, forged medical reports, convictions under non-existent laws, and the blackmail of judicial families become the new normal, the judiciary has ceased to be an institution of justice. It has become an extension of the security apparatus.”
Insisting that it will not be silenced nor intimidated, IPOB vowed that it will not rest until “every fraudulent process” in the case is exposed and Nnamdi Kanu unconditionally released.
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