Kanu, through his lawyer Aloy Ejimakor, filed the suit in March, asking the court to redress his infamous unlawful expulsion or extraordinary rendition from Kenya by the Federal Government.
By Jeffrey Agbo
A Federal High Court in Umuahia has fixed October 27 for judgment in the extraordinary rendition suit filed by Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).
Kanu, through his lawyer Aloy Ejimakor, filed the suit in March, asking the court to redress his infamous unlawful expulsion or extraordinary rendition from Kenya by the Federal Government.
Justice Evelyn Anyadike fixed the date for judgment, after the adoption of addresses by the counsel to the plaintiff and the defendant.
Counsel to the plaintiff, in the originating summons, described the suit as sui generis (of a special class).
He contended that the expulsion of extraordinary rendition of Kanu 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 asked the court to redress a myriad of violations that came with Kanu’s rendition, such as torture, unlawful detention and denial of the right to a fair hearing as required by law before anybody can be expelled from one country to the other.
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Ejimakor also sought to halt Kanu’s prosecution and restore him to the status quo before his rendition on June 19, 2021.
However, the counsel to the respondent, Simon Eno of the Federal Ministry of Justice, urged the court to dismiss the suit.
Eno described the suit as an abuse of the court process, saying that the issues sought were already decided by Justice Benson Anya of the Abia State High Court on January 19, 2022.
Ejimakor countered the defence counsel’s submission, saying that the court only decided that portion of violation of Kanu’s fundamental rights that occurred in 2017.
He explained that when he made claims that bordered on rendition, the court declined jurisdiction.
Kanu’s counsel said that the court did so on grounds that rendition, being related to extradition, lay within the exclusive jurisdiction of the Federal High Court.
According to him, this is what informed his decision to initiate the suit before the Federal High Court.