Kanu sues fed govt, seeks N50.10b for his abduction

Kanu sues fed govt, seeks damages for his extradition, incarceration, and court trial

By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor

Nnamdi Kanu has sued both the federal government and the federal Attorney General over his abduction and unlawful extradition from Kenya on 27 June 2021.

The leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) is seeking N50 billion as damages and N100 million as legal costs for his incarceration by the Department of Security Services (DSS) trying him in court for treason and other allegations.

Mike Ozekhome, SAN filed the suit on his behalf at the Federal High Court in Abuja on 6 April.

Kanu wants the court to determine the following questions:

• Whether the way and manner in which he was abducted in Kenya and extraordinarily renditioned to Nigeria is consistent with extant laws particularly Article 12(4) of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights and Article/Part 5(a) of the African Charter’s Principles and Guidelines on Human and Peoples’ Rights while countering terrorism in Africa.

• Whether by Section 15 of the Extradition Act Cap E25, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004, he can be competently/legally tried for offences stated in counts 1 to 14 of the 15-count amended charge which are not the offences for which he was renditioned to Nigeria.

• Whether by Section 15 of the Extradition Act Cap E25, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004, the defendants have the enabling powers to detain or subject him to be tried on charges later amended after he was renditioned to Nigeria.

Kanu is seeking in reliefs, declarations of the court on the following:

• His abduction and extraordinary rendition to Nigeria without being subjected to extradition proceedings/hearing in Kenya where he was abducted, violates Article 12(4) of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act CAP A9, LFN 2004.

• His detention and continued detention on the strength of an amended charge filed after his extraordinary forceful rendition to Nigeria, are illegal, ultra vires the powers of the Defendants and violate the 1^st Defendant’s rights under Nigerian municipal Laws, African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), the Convention against Torture, its operational protocol, and his constitutional rights; and the UN Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), 1948.

• His forcible abduction in Kenya on 19June 2021 and his consequent forcible extraordinary rendition to Nigeria without due compliance with extant laws, were done in blatant breach of Article 12(4) of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act CAP, A9, LFN 2004, Section 15 of the Extradition Act CAP E25, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004, Part 5 (A) (Transfer of Individuals) Principles and Guidelines on Human and Peoples Right while countering Terrorism in Africa; and Article 13 of the UDHR, 1948.

• He is entitled to all benefits, rights and privileges contained in Section 15 of the Extradition Act, Cap E25, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004, Section 12(4) of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act, CAP A9, LFN 2004, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and other laws prohibiting his forcible and unlawful abduction in and expulsion from Kenya, and consequent upon the extraordinary rendition to Nigeria and detention on an amended charge filed against him after being forcibly renditioned to Nigeria.

• He shall not be subjected to any form of criminal trial or further detention upon his illegal and unlawful rendition to Nigeria, particularly with reference to the newly introduced amended charge filed in Charge No: FHC/ABJ/CR/383/2015, between F.R.N V. Nnamdi Kanu, after he was illegally, forcibly and unlawfully renditioned to Nigeria.

• Pursuant to Article 12(4) of the African Charter on Human & Peoples Right (Ratification and Enforcement) Act, CAP A9 LFN 2004, his forcible abduction, expulsion or extraordinary rendition of the Plaintiff from Kenya to Nigeria by the Defendants without a decision taken in accordance with the Laws of Kenya is illegal, unlawful, wrongful, unconstitutional and amounts to a gross violation of the international Humanitarian Rights of the Plaintiff.

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Related articles:

Kenya’s court filings confirm Nigeria abducted Nnamdi Kanu

Court declines request seeking DSS DG to testify on Nnamdi Kanu’s health

Court grants Nnamdi Kanu’s right to comfort in detention

Nnamdi Kanu: Malami, in a UN memo, condemned 1984 rendition of Umaru Dikko, IPOB reveals

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Kanu is seeking court orders

• Directing the Defendants to unconditionally release him from the custody of the DSS forthwith.

• Restraining the Defendants, whether by themselves, their servants, privies, agents, representatives, or any other person whosoever; or by whatsoever name called, from taking any further step in his prosecution/trial in Criminal Charge No: FHC/ABJ/CR/383/2015, currently pending before Court No. 2, Federal High Court, Abuja.

• Perpetual injunction restraining the Defendants, their agents, privies, representatives, or any other person whomsoever and by whatsoever name called, from further prosecuting or from further initiating any criminal proceedings or action against him; or from further arresting and or detaining the Plaintiff on the same or similar offences.

• Payment of N50 billion to him by the Defendants as general damages.

• Payment of N100 million to him by the Defendants as the cost of this action.

No date has been fixed for the hearing.

An affidavit attached to the lawsuit, deposed to on behalf of Kanu, states thus:

• I, Chinwe Umeche, Esq., Adult, Female, Christian, and Nigerian Citizen of 29 Kigoma Street Wuse Zone 7, Abuja, do hereby make oath and state as follows;

• That I am the Managing Partner in the Law Firm of I.C. Ejiofor & Co., briefed by the Plaintiff to prosecute the instant suit on his behalf with the Lead Counsel Mike Ozekhome … and swears to this affidavit on behalf of the said Plaintiff and have the latter’s authority to swear to the same.

• That due to the present incarceration of the Plaintiff, he is unable to depose to this affidavit personally.

• That the facts deposed to herein proceed from my personal knowledge and experience and also facts supplied to me by the Plaintiff himself during my numerous visits to him in his present place of detention at the Headquarters of the State Security Service, particularly, my visit to him on the 4^th Day of March, 2022.

• That at a meeting held with the Plaintiff at the DSS visiting room at about 3.pm, on Thursday the 3^rd day of March, 2022, the Plaintiff informed me and I verily believe as follows:

• That the Plaintiff is an indigene of Isiama Afaraukwu Ibeku in Umuahia North Local Government Area of Abia State, and was born on 25^th September, 1967.

• That the Plaintiff was granted bail by the Federal High Court, per Justice Nyako, on the 14^th day of April, 2017, in the criminal charge No: FHC/ABJ/CR/383/2015, Between F.R.N. VS NNAMDI KANU, and the matter was consequently adjourned to the 17^th day of October, 2017, for hearing.

• That while the Plaintiff was in his ancestral home at Afaraukwu Ibeku, Abia State, enjoying the bail granted to him by the Court and preparing for his trial scheduled for the 17^th day of October 2017, a joint team of Nigerian Security agents, led by soldiers invaded the said ancestral home of the Plaintiff on the 10^th and 14^th of September, 2017.

• That during the murderous and bloody invasion, over 28 innocent and unarmed civilians were murdered in cold blood. The Plaintiff, who was the principal target of the bloody invasion, managed to escape death by the whiskers only by an act of providence.

• That in the course of his involuntary exile overseas, the Plaintiff, on the 5^th of May, 2021, entered the Republic of Kenya and was legally admitted into the country. After his admission, the Plaintiff took up a temporary residence in a location in Nairobi, Kenya.

• That after the Defendants failed in their objective of killing the Plaintiff during the 10^th and 14^th of September, 2017, bloody invasion of his ancestral home, they continued in their hot pursuit of the Plaintiff and subsequently became aware that the Plaintiff had taken refuge in Kenya.

• That on the 19^th of June, 2021, the Plaintiff drove himself without any companion to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, Nairobi, Kenya, on a personal engagement.

• That immediately the Plaintiff pulled to a stop at the parking lot of the airport and alighted from his vehicle, about 20 (twenty) agents of the Defendants violently accosted and brutally abducted the Plaintiff, handcuffed, blindfolded and bundled him into a waiting vehicle and immediately sped away.

• That the Plaintiff’s abductors took him to a nondescript private house (not a police station or other official holding facility) somewhere in Nairobi, Kenya, and chained him to the floor. The Plaintiff was not shown any warrant of arrest issued by any court in Kenya or any extradition warrant. He also was not informed of the existence of any such warrant or the reason for his unlawful abduction.

• That while chained to the floor like an animal, the Plaintiff’s abductors took turns beating and torturing him to the point that he fainted several times and was intermittently revived whenever his abductors poured cold water on him.

• That while torturing and beating the Plaintiff, his abductors taunted him, verbally degraded him and called him a “separatist Igbo Jew”. They also told the Plaintiff that he would be “expelled to Nigeria to face death”.

• That to muffle and prevent the Plaintiff’s anguished screaming from being heard in the vicinity, his abductors tied a cloth over his mouth and so close to covering his nostrils that the Plaintiff strenuously struggled for breath.

• That the Plaintiff remained chained to the floor for eight (8) days and was consequently forced to relieve himself of urine and excrement where he was chained, with same being smeared all over his body.

• That throughout the duration of the Plaintiff’s cruel captivity, he was not allowed to bathe; and was fed only on bland bread once a day and given non-sanitary water to drink.

• That the inhuman treatment, cruelty and vicious degradation the Plaintiff’s abductors subjected him to, and the external and internal injuries he sustained therefrom, coupled with his poor health, made the Plaintiff to live in dread, fear, anxiety, terror and apprehension that he was going to die in captivity.

• That all the Plaintiff’s entreaties to his abductors to avail him medications for his hypertension and heart condition were inhumanely refused by the said agents of the Defendants.

• That all the Plaintiff’s entreaties to be taken before a Kenyan Court or even a police station or other official law enforcement facility or allowed to make a phone call were not only roundly rejected, but were met with more beatings and torture by his abductors.

• That on the eight day, the Plaintiff’s abductors brought him out of the house, put him in a car, drove him straight to the tarmac of Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, where they skillfully evaded Kenyan immigration, and forcibly bundled the Plaintiff into a private jet that departed the airport at about 12 noon on 27^th of June, 2021, and arrived Nigeria in the evening of same day.

• That upon arrival in Nigeria, the Plaintiff was subsequently taken to and detained at the Headquarters of the Department of State Security (DSS) in Abuja, under inhuman and degrading conditions.

• That the Plaintiff spent the first night at the DSS detention facility, sleeping on the floor with very bright electric bulbs deliberately left on throughout the night, thus causing the Plaintiff extreme body heat, sleep deprivation and mental anguish.

• That throughout the period of inhuman detention of the Plaintiff in Kenya, he was not subjected to any extradition hearing or proceedings before he was clandestinely renditioned to Nigeria under brutal circumstances.

• That on the 29^th of June, 2021, the 2^nd Defendant addressed a press conference, wherein he stated the following: “Self-acclaimed leader of the proscribed secessionist Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) Nnamdi Kanu, has been (rearrested) through the collaborative efforts of Nigerian Intelligence and Security services. He has been brought back to Nigeria in order to continue facing trial after disappearing while on bail regarding 11 count charge against him”.

• That the Kenyan Government has since denied any involvement in the abduction, detention, torture and savage expulsion of the Plaintiff from Kenya to Nigeria. Further, that the said denial was widely published in the media. Attached and marked as Exhibit NK1, is a copy of the process filed by the Kenyan Government in a proceeding currently going on in Kenya wherein it alluded to the fact that the Plaintiff was legally admitted into Kenyan territory but no record has shown that he legally exited therefrom.

• That I know as a fact that relevant International legal instruments and Covenant, including the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights, Extradition Act, Cap E25, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004, African Charter’s Principle and Guidelines on Human and Peoples’ Rights while countering Terrorism in Africa, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the UDHR, 1948, are uniform in their provisions, which, in their entirety, prohibit the extraordinary rendition of the Plaintiff in the manner in which it was done by the Defendants and, consequently, place a bar on any criminal proceeding following the forceful expulsion and rendition of the Plaintiff.

• That, in view of the foregoing, it has become compelling to approach this Honourable court with this suit to seek for the court’s interpretation of the relevant legal Instruments and laws, which the Defendants have gravely violated in their bid to brutally rendition the Plaintiff to Nigeria and to consequently invoke the provisions of these laws to ensure immediate termination of any criminal proceedings pending against the Plaintiff, particularly, Charge No: FHC/ABJ/CR/383/2015 between the Federal Republic of Nigeria V. Nnamdi Kanu.  

• That the Plaintiff has since been held in solitary confinement from the 27^th day of June, 2021, when he was extraordinarily forcibly renditioned to Nigeria.

• That the actions and/or inactions of the Defendants have been greatly prejudicial to the Plaintiff, and he has consequently suffered and continues to suffer loss, damages, dehumanisation, loss of humanity and shame on account of same.

• That I swear to this affidavit in good faith, sincerely and conscientiously believing same to be true and correct to the best of my knowledge, information and belief.