Court orders FG to return Nnamdi Kanu to Kenya, pay him N500m

Nnamdi Kanu was kidnapped in Kenya and extradited illegitimately to Nigeria on June 19, 2021, according to an order from a Federal High Court in Umuahia, Abia State.

In her decision on Wednesday, Justice Evelyn Anyadike also gave the IPOB leader N500 million in general damages (IPOB).

The Federal Government, Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice Abubakar Malami, and President Muhammadu Buhari are named as respondents in the March lawsuit.

The court cited the Abuja Court of Appeal’s judgment from October 13 and granted all eight of Kanu’s requests for relief, including the one regarding extraordinary rendition.

The court held that the expulsion or 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.

It held that the manner of arrest, torture, continued detention and denial of the right to fair hearing amounted to a brazen violation of Kanu’s rights.

While delivering the one-and-half-hour judgment, Anyadike held that the burden was on the respondents to justify their actions, which they failed to do so.

Reacting, Kanu’s counsel, Alloy Ejimakor hailed the court for what he described as a “painstaking judgment.”

According to him, it shows that the court is the last hope of the common man and has reinstated our confidence in the judiciary as lawyers.

Ejimakor said: “What is the most important in today’s judgment is not the money awarded to us as damages, but the court’s order that Kanu should be restored to the status quo as of June 19, 2021.

“I, therefore, call on the Federal Government to take prompt steps to obey this court order and restore Kanu to the status quo.”

The respondents were not represented in court.