Justice Anyadike held that the respondent failed to disprove the claims of Kanu that he was arrested, blindfolded, tortured, and chained to the ground for eight days in Kenya before his extradition to Nigeria.
By Jeffrey Agbo
A Federal High Court sitting in Umuahia, Abia State on Wednesday awarded N500m as damages to the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, over his illegal abduction and human rights abuse from Kenya.
Justice E . N Anyadike also ordered the Federal Government to return Kanu to Kenya from where he was extradited to Nigeria on June 19, 2021.
Similar to the judgement of the Appeal Court in Abuja, 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.
Justice Anyadike held that the respondent failed to disprove the claims of Kanu that he was arrested, blindfolded, tortured, and chained to the ground for eight days in Kenya before his extradition to Nigeria.
The case was filed through Kanu’s lawyer, Aloy Ejimakor.
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Ejimakor had 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.
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.”