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- Pix(above, R-L): MNK and Bar. Aloy Ejimakor
A Federal High Court sitting in Umuahia, Abia State, has ordered the Nigerian government to pay a sum of N500 million to the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, as damages.
Justice Evelyn Anyadike in her ruling on Wednesday, October 26, 2022, upheld Kanu’s suit against the Federal Government.
The judge ruled that the Federal Government’s extraordinary rendition of Nnamdi Kanu is a violation of his fundamental rights.
Expressing delight on the development, Kanu’s Special Counsel, Bar. Aloy Ejimakor, said: “Above all, all seven prayers sought from the court were granted, including restoring him to his state of being as of 19th of June, 2021 as well as halting his prosecution.”
The suit, which Ejimakor said is sui generis (of a special class) 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.
In addition to the rendition, he asked the Court to redress the myriad of 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, adding that he also sought to halt his prosecution and restore him to the status quo before he was renditioned on 19th June, 2021.
He continued: “You will recall that on 19th January, 2022, the High Court of Abia State decided that portion of violation of Kanu’s fundamental rights that occurred in 2017. Even as I had made claims that bordered on rendition, the Court declined jurisdiction on grounds that rendition, being related to extradition, lies within the exclusive jurisdiction of the Federal High Court. This is what informed my decision to initiate the suit before the Federal High Court.”
After listening to the arguments of parties, Justice Anyadike granted all the seven prayers sought from the court, including restoring Kanu to his state of being as at 19th of June, 2021 as well as halting his prosecution.
Only recently, the Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja , had also discharged and acquitted the embattled leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu of charges bordering on treasonable felony and terorrism.
Kanu is being prosecuted by the Federal Government at the Federal High Court in Abuja presided by Justice Binta Nyako, on a cocktail of charges bordering on treasonable felony and terrorism, which he allegedly committed in the course of his separatist campaigns./SHARE THIS
–Tags: Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, IPOB, Bar. Aloy Ejimakor, FG