Nnamdi Kanu Demands N25bn Damages Over Alleged ‘Extraordinary Rendition’

The Federal High Court, Umuahia, will on Oct. 4 this year hear Mazi Nnamdi Kanu’s extraordinary rendition suit. The suit was filed by Kanu’s special counsel, Barr Aloy Ejimakor, in March this year. Kanu is seeking, among others, N25bn damages against the Federal Government.

According to Ejimakor, “The suit 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.”

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Ejimakor is also asking the court ‘to redress the myriad violations that came with the rendition, such as the torture, the unlawful detention, and the alleged denial of the right to fair hearing which is required by law before anybody can be expelled from one country to the other’.

He also seeks to halt Kanu’s prosecution and to be restored to the status quo before his rendition on 19th June 2021.

Our correspondent reports that on 19th January 2022, the High Court of Abia State ruled that Kanu did not jump bail in 2017. The federal government accused Kanu of jumping bail, treason and running the Indigenous People of Biafra, which is proscribed in Nigeria. His case is before Justice Binta Nyako of the FCT High Court.

The High Court of Umuahia earlier declined to rule on Kanu’s alleged rendition as the judge said it lied within the exclusive jurisdiction of the Federal High Court.

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The current case before the Federal High Court, Umuahia, according to Ejimakor, is seeking a judicial pronouncement on the constitutionality of the alleged extraordinary rendition.

The reliefs being sought are declarations that Kanu’s arrest in Kenya by the respondents’ agents without due process of law is arbitrary; 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; that pursuant to Article 12(4) of the Charter, the expulsion (or extraordinary rendition) of the applicant from Kenya to Nigeria by the respondents without a decision taken in accordance with the law of Kenya is illegal; that any criminal prosecution of the applicant the purpose of which the respondents unlawfully expelled the applicant from Kenya to Nigeria is illegal.”

Ejimakor is praying the court to prohibit the respondents from taking any further step in any criminal prosecution of the applicant enabled by the said unlawful expulsion of the applicant from Kenya to Nigeria; compelling the respondents to forthwith restitute or 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.

Ejimakor also prays the court to compel 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 national dailies, and order the respondents to pay the sum of N25bn 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.

The federal government and its agents are the respondents.

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