Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, has demanded the sum of N25 billion from the Nigerian Government.
Kanu made the demand as compensation for the physical, mental, emotional, psychological, property, and other damages suffered due to the infringements of his fundamental rights.
The IPOB leader made the demand, among others, concerning his arrest and extraordinary rendition from Kenya in 2021.
Recall that Kanu was rearrested in Kenya and repatriated to Nigeria last year.
Amid the controversy surrounding Kanu’s rearrest in Kenya, the Nigerian Government had denied involvement in the operation.
Despite the denial, Kanu’s legal team dragged the Nigerian Government to court over how the IPOB leader was picked in Kenya.
However, the Federal High Court sitting in Umuahia, Abia State, had fixed October 4th, 2022, for the hearing of Kanu’s extraordinary rendition suit.
A statement signed by his Special Counsel, Aloy Ejimakor, reads: “On 4th October 2022, the Federal High Court, Umuahia will hear Mazi Nnamdi Kanu’s extraordinary rendition suit which I had filed before the court in March this year.
“The suit is sui generis (of a special class), and it is primarily aimed at redressing the infamous unlawful expulsion or extraordinary rendition of Nnamdi Kanu, which is a clear violation of his fundamental rights under Article 12(4) of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights, as well as Chapter IV of the Nigerian Constitution.
“In addition to the rendition, I am asking the Court to redress the myriad violations that came with the rendition, such as the torture, the unlawful detention and the denial of the right to fair hearing which is required by law before anybody can be expelled from one country to the other. I am also seeking to halt his prosecution and restore him to the status quo before he was rendition on 19th June, 2021.”
It was reported that on 19th January 2022, the High Court of Abia State decided that portion of the violation of Kanu’s fundamental rights that occurred in 2017.
He added: “Even as I had made claims that bordered on rendition, the Court declined jurisdiction on grounds that rendition, being related to extradition, lies within the exclusive jurisdiction of the Federal High Court. This is what informed my decision to initiate the suit before the Federal High Court.
“To be sure, the extraordinary rendition of Nnamdi Kanu triggered myriad legal questions that cut across multiple jurisdictions in Nigeria and even triggered the international legal order, to boot. In other words, the rendition has expanded the matter of Kanu far beyond the realms of the Abuja trial and opened up new legal frontiers that must be ventilated to the hilt before other courts and tribunals within and without Nigeria.
“Thus, this very case before the Federal High Court, Umuahia is one of such that is aimed at seeking a definitive judicial pronouncement on the constitutionality of the extraordinary rendition. The ones in the United Kingdom, Kenya, African Union and the United Nations are in addition.”
The demands Ejimakor made on behalf of Kanu read below:
A DECLARATION that the arrest of the Applicant in Kenya by the Respondents’ agents without due process of law is arbitrary, and the Respondents’ enforced disappearance of the Applicant for eight (8) days and their refusal to produce the Applicant before a Kenyan Court for the purpose of Applicant’s extradition is illegal, unlawful, unconstitutional and amount to infringement of the Applicant’s fundamental right against arbitrary arrest, to his personal liberty and to fair hearing as enshrined and guaranteed under the pertinent provisions of CFRN and the Charter.
A DECLARATION that the detention of the Applicant in a non-official secret facility in Kenya and the torture of the Applicant in Kenya by the Respondents’ agents is illegal, unlawful, unconstitutional and amount to infringement of the Applicant’s fundamental right against unlawful detention, torture and to fair hearing, as enshrined and guaranteed under the pertinent provisions of CFRN and the Charter).
Ejimakor reiterated that the court should declare Kanu’s arrest in Kenya as illegal, unlawful, unconstitutional, and amounts to infringement of his fundamental right to fair hearing.
He urged the court to stop the Nigerian Government from further prosecuting Kanu.
AN ORDER mandating and compelling the Respondents to forthwith restitute or otherwise restore the Applicant to his liberty, same being his state of being as of 19th June, 2021; and to thereupon repatriate the Applicant to his country of lawful domicile (to wit: the United Kingdom) to await the outcome of any formal request the Respondents may file before the competent authorities in Britain for the lawful extradition of the Applicant to Nigeria.
AN ORDER mandating and compelling the Respondents to issue an official Letter of Apology to the Applicant for the infringement of his fundamental rights; and publication of said Letter of Apology in three (3) national dailies.
AN ORDER mandating and compelling the Respondents to pay the sum of N25,000,000,000.00 (Twenty-Five Billion Naira) to the Applicant, being monetary damages claimed by the Applicant against the Respondents jointly and severally for the physical, mental, emotional, psychological, property and other damages suffered by the Applicant as a result of the infringements of Applicant’s fundamental rights by the Respondents.
Ejimakor further expressed hope that the IPOB leader would soon get justice
