FG loses again to Nnamdi Kanu, court slams N500m fine over unlawful extradition

The leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, has again secured another victory against the Nigerian government in his fight against his unlawful extradition from Kenya.

The Federal High Court sitting in Umuahia, on Wednesday, upheld Kanu’s suit against the federal government, and awarded a N500 million cost against it as damages for forcefully abducting the IPOB leader from Kenya in June 2021.

The court presided over by Justice Evelyn Anyadike, awarded the amount as compensation for his illegal arrest and extradition from Kenya in 2021, as well as the abuse of his rights.

Anyadike held that Kanu’s fundamental human rights were infringed upon by the government, adding that he had been “exposed to global ridicule which requires global cleansing”.

Persecondnews reports that Kanu had through his special counsel, Mr Aloy Ejimakor, challenged his “abduction and extraordinary rendition from Kenya without any court warrant”, and demanded his restitution to his country of abode, Britain or Kenya, where he was before the abduction in June 19, 2021.

Kanu’s lawyer had begged the court to “redress the myriad of violations that came with his rendition, such as the torture, 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.”

On October 13, 2022, a three-member Court of Appeal, Abuja, struck out the terrorism charges slammed against the detained IPOB leader.

The appellate court held that Kanu’s extradition from Kenya to Nigeria to stand trial was illegal, adding that his arrest, abduction and subsequent arraignment of before a Federal High Court violated international convention on terrorism and, thus, robbed any court of law in Nigeria necessary jurisdiction to entertain the suit.

Justice Adedotun Adefope-Okijie, who read the judgment of the three-man panel, noted that there was nowhere the federal government showed it complied with the procedures for the extradition of the IPOB leader from Kenya last year.