IPOB lauds NBA, others over release of Nnamdi Kanu’s doctor, Aghaji from detention

By Cyprian Ebele, Onitsha

The Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Monday expressed satisfaction with the release of Prof. Martin Aghaji, the personal doctor to its leader, Nnamdi Kanu, from Lagos correctional centre.

In a release by the spokesperson of the movement, Emma Powerful, IPOB said, it noted with cautious relief the  release of Emeritus Professor Martin Aghaji, the pre eminent cardio-thoracic surgeon and personal physician of its leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, from DSS detention in Lagos. 

According to Emma Powerful, “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.

“What Professor Aghaji just endured is the daily reality for every legal and medical practitioner associated with this high-profile case: death threats, illegal detentions, blackmail, fear of disbarment, and the weaponisation of family members of judges as bait to achieve a predetermined outcome. 

“It is particularly telling that as soon as Justice Binta Nyako recused herself at the insistence of Onyendu Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, the EFCC case against her husband and son.

“a case that 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.

“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.

IPOB therefore called on the general public, all human rights organisations, the United States, Israel, the United Kingdom, and every serious observer of this 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.

“IPOB will not be silenced. We will not be intimidated. And we will not rest until every fraudulent process in this case is exposed and Onyendu Mazi Nnamdi Kanu is unconditionally released,” it vowed.