Court To Rule On Kanu’s Extraordinary Rendition Suit Oct 27

A Federal High Court sitting in Umuahia, Abia State, Tuesday, fixed October 27 2022 to rule in the extraordinary rendition suit instituted by the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, against the federal government.

Barr Aloy Ejimakor, Kanu’s special counsel, filed the suit on behalf of Kanu. Ejimakor is challenging the legality of the alleged forceful arrest and rendition of Kanu to Nigeria from Kenya last year.

At the hearing of the matter Tuesday, Kanu’s special counsel and those of the federal government adopted their written applications and processes.

FG’s lawyer Simon Enoch pleaded the court to dismiss the suit, alleging that it was a violation of court processes.

According to him, the case had been decided by the Abia State High Court. He averred that Kanu had jumped bail before his re-arrest in Kenya.

Ejimakor countered him, saying the case decided by the Abia High Court was not the same as the present one. He said Abia court only handled the suit pertaining to the alleged military invasion of Kanu’s house in 2017 which was decided in his favour.

Ejimakor said the current suit before the Federal High Court was solely on the alleged extraordinary rendition of Kanu from Kenya to Nigeria by the instruments of the federal government without any warrant.

He wants the court to compel the federal government to produce the authority through which Kanu’s extraordinary rendition was based.

He said, “My client remains an unlawfully expelled individual, and cannot be subjected to any trial because he was unlawfully renditioned.”

He told the court that the United Nations Commission on Human Rights had given orders to Nigerian authorities to release Kanu unconditionally, and also pay him the damages attendant to the unlawful manners he was arrested.

Ejimakor also said Kanu ‘needed an urgent medical checkup over his deteriorating health.

The presiding judge, Justice Evelyn Anyadike, fixed October 27 to deliver judgment on the matter.

Ejimakor told newsmen afterward that, “You cannot detain somebody you don’t have the authority to arrest.”

He referred to a similar case that involved former agric minister Alhaji Umaru Dikko orchestrated by the federal government in 1984, and how those indicted were arrested and prosecuted, as well as Nigeria being punished by the United Kingdom.

He said Kanu’s quest for a referendum on Biafra was his right and recalled that a similar scenario led to the loss of a part of Eastern Nigeria to Cameroon, and part of Southern Cameroon became Nigeria respectively via plebiscite.

Ejimakor expressed hope that the court would justify his case, and grant the prayers of the suit.