Nnamdi Kanu Sues Kenyan Govt Over Extradition To Nigeria

Mazi Nnamdi Kanu has sued the government of Kenya for its role in extradicting him to Nigeria.

Kanu’s special counsel, Barr Aloy Ejimakor, confirmed this to THE WHISTLER on Thursday.

It was learnt that the suit was filed by Kanu’s younger brother, Kingsley Kanunta, through Luchiri and Company Advocates, a Nairobi based law firm.

In the suit, Kanu claims his arrest in Kenya and subsequent extradition to Nigeria in June were an infringement on his fundamental human rights.

The respondents, according to the suit, are Kenya’s director of Immigration, director of Criminal Investigations, OCPD Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, and the attorney general.

The petition stated that, “The subject [Kanu] is believed to have been apprehended at the airport on June 19, 2021, and unlawfully detained for several days after which he was illegally and stealthily extradited to Nigeria without his British passport in utter-non-compliance with laid-down processes of laws in Kenya.

“The subject (Kanu) is a British citizen resident in the United Kingdom.

“He formerly held Nigerian citizenship, but renounced it in 2015. Consequently, his Nigerian passport was taken away from him by Nigerian authorities.”

The petitioner is asking the court to declare Kanu’s extradition ‘a violation of the fundamental rights and freedom to equal protection of the law, human dignity, freedom and security, freedom of movement, fair administrative action, access to justice, the right to be represented in court and a fair hearing as guaranteed in the Constitution of Kenya.”

The suit also wants the court to declare that detaining the subject without justification and without informing him of the reasons for the detention, holding him incommunicado in deplorable and inhumane conditions were in violation of rights protected by the constitution.

It also wants the court ‘to issue an order compelling the respondents to furnish him with the designations and ranks of state officers, public officers, police officers, agencies and departments, institutions and organs of government involved in his extradition’.

Kanu’s special counsel, Barr Ejimakor, had in an earlier suit, demanded N5bn damages from the government of Nigeria, among other accused, for violating Kanu’s rights.