Kanu is medically fit to stand trial-NMA tells court

°°°° NMA never examined him – IPOB
From Godwin Tsa Abuja and Stanley Uzoaru,Owerri
The Nigeria Medical Association (NMA) panel constituted by its president, has told the Abuja division of the Federal High Court that detained leader of Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) Nnamdi Kanu is medically fit to stand his trial as his ailment is not life-threatening.
Kanu had, in a motion marked: FHC/ABJ/CR/383/2025, bemoaned that his health had taken a worrisome decline, a situation he said necessitated the invitation of doctors who carried out a thorough examination on him.
Following the motion, Justice James Omotosho had, on September 26, 2025, ordered the NMA which is the umbrella body of medical practitioners in the country, to constitute a team of experts to ascertain Kanu’s health condition.
The committee, the court said, should comprise eight to 10 medical practitioners, among whom should be a Cardiologist and a Neurologist.
The order came after the court dismissed a no-case-submission the embattled IPOB leader filed to be discharged and acquitted of the seven-count charge the federal government preferred against him.
The court gave the medical body eight days to submit its assessment report on Kanu’s health, before it.
The report, the court said, would assist it in determining whether or not it should grant Kanu’s request to be transferred to the National Hospital, Abuja, for adequate medical attention.
However, following the clear bill of health, the court has given Kanu six consecutive days beginning from October 23 to open and close his defence.
In the panel’s report submitted to the court on October 13 by the prosecution team led by Adegboyega Awomolo, SAN, part of which was read in the open proceedings stated that “the defendant’s ailment is not life-threatening.”
The team’s report concluded that Kanu is fit to stand trial.
Based on the information contained in the report and in the absence of any objection from lawyers to parties, Justice Omotosho said the court was convinced that the defendant could proceed with the trial.
The judge subsequently granted Kanu six consecutive days, beginning from October 23, to open and close his defence.
The judge equally granted an oral application by defence lawyer Kanu Agabi, SAN, that Kanu’s legal team be granted a private consultation opportunity with the defendant outside the premises of the DSS.
Agabi said the defendant’s legal team was afraid that its consultation with him (Kanu) could be tapped or recorded by the DSS.
Justice Omotosho also acceded to Agabi’s request that the private meeting with Kanu be held in the courtroom, during which only the defendant and his lawyers would be present.
By the court’s directive, the private consultation meeting will be held within the courtroom between 9am and 12noon on October 22, while the trial will resume on October 23.
Meanwhile,the IPOB has countered the NMA claim that Kanu was medically fit to stand trial, claiming that no medical examination was conducted on him by the medical association.
Spokesperson of the group,Emma Powerful in a statement, described the NMA’s examination as “false and forgery.”
He said, “These are the facts they can’t hide: confidentiality breach.The AGF has no legal or ethical authority to receive or interpret Mazi Nnamdi Kanu’s medical report. Such a report is strictly between the patient and the examining medical body. By hijacking the report, the AGF has violated doctor–patient confidentiality and committed a criminal breach of trust.
“From the day Justice Omotosho issued his order on September 26, 2025, the NMA has never examined Mazi Nnamdi Kanu. There was no physical examination, no laboratory analysis, no blood or urine samples collected. Any document being paraded as a “medical report” is therefore,a fraud and a forgery.
“The NMA failed to tender any report before the court on the date of the order. Instead, they handed a piece of paper to the AGF, who in turn “interpreted” it for the judge. This is an insult to judicial integrity and a clear indication that the AGF, not the court, is dictating outcomes.
“How can a man’s health status be debated and ruled upon when he was never given access to his own medical report until this morning? What Justice Omotosho did today is judicial ambush, pure and simple.
“The Nigerian judiciary has reached the point where truth is an inconvenience, and justice is an illusion. The devil himself would blush at the scale of deceit that played out in that courtroom. The court ignored glaring contradictions, discarded its own order, and leaned entirely on the AGF’s political narrative”. Powerful alleged.
However, IPOB has advised NMA to immediately clarify its role and distance itself from the said medical report of Kanu ,while calling on the Federal High Court to reject the AGF’s document and compel a genuine, independent medical examination by an internationally recognized neutral team.