Abuja, 22 November 2025 – In a blistering public statement released today, Sir Ifeanyi Ejiofor, the lawyer who led the defence of IPOB leader Mazi Nnamdi Kanu for nearly a decade, has accused the current legal team of transforming a high-profile terrorism trial into a “grotesque parody” driven by social-media grandstanding rather than sound legal strategy.
Ejiofor, writing on his verified X (formerly Twitter) handle @EjioforBar, described Thursday’s proceedings – widely believed to refer to a significant adverse ruling against Kanu – as the “tragic but entirely avoidable” culmination of amateurism and self-promotion.
“Instead of crafting legal strategy, they crafted Instagram stories. Instead of mastering case law, they mastered camera angles,” Ejiofor wrote. He claimed that during his team’s tenure (2015–2024), sustained legal victories, including the 2022 Court of Appeal judgment discharging and acquitting Kanu, had placed the IPOB leader on the “threshold of another monumental breakthrough”.
According to Ejiofor, sensitive details of that progress were inadvertently disclosed by Kanu himself to members of the new team. Rather than support the existing strategy, he alleged, these individuals used the information to orchestrate a takeover that ultimately derailed the case.
The statement singled out what Ejiofor called “bloated, delusional entertainers-in-wigs” who, he said, encouraged Kanu to represent himself despite explicit judicial warnings that self-representation in such a complex matter was perilous. The result, he argued, was a full criminal trial that could have been paused or avoided entirely through “strategic diplomacy and airtight legal manoeuvring”.
Ejiofor expressed astonishment that globally respected Senior Advocates of Nigeria – including Chief Kanu Agabi SAN and Chief Onyechi Ikpeazu SAN – were sidelined at a critical juncture, only for the case to be “hijacked by mediocre adventurers” who reduced proceedings to “a TikTok legal carnival”.
He further accused the current handlers of spreading “falsehoods, half-truths, and misleading ‘updates’” that became evidentiary landmines exploited by the prosecution, while continuing to post videos and offer “fresh false hopes” even after the latest setback.
Looking ahead, Ejiofor said any serious rescue effort by “globally respected legal experts” would first require a comprehensive clean-up of the “monumental damage” caused by the present team, coupled with a drastic reduction in publicity and a return to sober, competent advocacy.
