JUST IN: Return Nnamdi Kanu to Kenya, pay him N500m – Court orders FG

A Federal High Court sitting in Umuahia, Abia State, has ordered the Federal Government to return Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) to Kenya, where he was abducted by the government, prior to his rendition to Nigeria on June 19, 2021.

The court, presided by Justice Evelyn Anyadike, also ordered the government to pay Kanu N500 million as damages in the case of fundamental human rights and extraordinary rendition from Kenya.

Justice Anyadike in the Wednesday ruling further restricted the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, from prosecuting Kanu.

The court insisted that the extradition of Kanu from Kenya without recourse to the legal process was a flagrant abuse of his fundamental human rights.

She held that the respondent failed to disprove the claims of the applicant that he was arrested, blindfolded, tortured, and chained to the ground for eight days in Kenya before his extradition to Nigeria.

Kanu, through his special Counsel, Aloy Ejimakor, had approached the court challenging his extradition from Kenya on June 19, 2021.

Ejimakor told the court that the suit is sui generis (of a special class) and was primarily aimed at redressing the infamous unlawful expulsion or extraordinary rendition of 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.

READ: JUST IN: Appeal Court acquits, discharges Nnamdi Kanu

He said, “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 his rendition on 19th June 2021.

The court dismissed the Federal Government’s objections to its jurisdiction and upheld all the reliefs sought by Kanu.

Speaking to the media after the judgment, Ejimakor called on the Federal Government to “promptly comply with the judgment, more particularly the part that requires Kanu to be returned to Kenya”.

He continued: “We defeated the Federal Government. They said they don’t listen; they have listened today. Court told them that if they know the thing they did in June last year, when they went to abduct the man from Kenya, they should return him back to Kenya the same way,” he told BBC Igbo.

“That what they did is bad and illegal, the way they tortured him is illegal. Our prayers to the court are eight, the court granted all. But the one I’m strongly pointing at is for them to take him back to Kenya, that is what the court said. So, I am hoping they will obey. If you offend and the court tells you, you have to accept.

“If you offend the Federal Government, they go to court; why do they go to court? When the court rules against them, they will start dragging foot. If they insist on not obeying the court, then they should dismantle all the courts in the country and we will start exchanging blows.