Court orders FG to return Kanu to status quo, awards him N500m damages

The Federal High Court presided by Justice Evelyn Anyadike has ordered the Federal Government to “restore Nnamdi Kanu to his status quo before 19th June 2021”.

In Wednesday’s ruling on fundamental human rights and extraordinary rendition of the leader of the proscribed Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB), she also ordered the government to pay N500m as damages to him.

The Court in its further rulings issued an injunction restraining the Attorney General of the Federation Abubakar Malami from prosecuting Kanu consequent upon his extraordinary rendition.

Kanu had in March this year filed a suit through his special counsel Aloy Ejimakor to enforce his fundamental rights stemming from what Ejimakor had termed his “extraordinary rendition” from Kenya in June last year.

In its Judgment, the court dismissed the Federal government’s objections to its jurisdiction and upheld all the reliefs sought by Kanu.

Speaking to the media after the judgment, Ejimakor called on the Federal government to “promptly comply with the judgment, more particularly the part that requires Kanu to be returned to Kenya”.

“We defeated the Federal Government. They said they don’t listen, they have listened today. Court told them that if they know the thing they did in June last year when they went to abduct the man from Kenya, they should return him back to Kenya the same way,” he told BBC Igbo.

“That what they did is bad and illegal, the way they tortured him is illegal. Our prayers to the court are eight, the court granted all. But the one I’m strongly pointing at is for them to take him back to Kenya, that is what the court said. So, I am hoping they will obey. If you offend and the court tells you, you have to accept.

“If you offend the Federal Government, they go to court; why do they go to court? When the court rules against them, they will start dragging foot. If they insist on not obeying the court, then they should dismantle all the courts in the country and we will start exchanging blows.”

Below are the reliefs sought by Kanu:

1. A DECLARATION that the arrest of the Applicant in Kenya by the Respondents’ agents without due process of law is arbitrary, and the Respondents’ enforced disappearance of the Applicant for eight (8) days and their refusal to produce the Applicant before a Kenyan Court for the purpose of Applicant’s extradition is illegal, unlawful, unconstitutional and amount to infringement of the Applicant’s fundamental right against arbitrary arrest, to his personal liberty and to fair hearing as enshrined and guaranteed under the pertinent provisions of CFRN and the Charter.

2. A DECLARATION that the detention of the Applicant in a non-official secret facility in Kenya and the torture of the Applicant in Kenya by the Respondents’ agents is illegal, unlawful, unconstitutional, and amounts to infringement of the Applicant’s fundamental right against unlawful detention, torture and to a fair hearing, as enshrined and guaranteed under the pertinent provisions of CFRN and the Charter).

3. A DECLARATION that pursuant to Article 12(4) of the Charter, the expulsion (or extraordinary rendition) of the Applicant from Kenya to Nigeria by the Respondents without a decision taken in accordance with the law of Kenya is illegal, unlawful, unconstitutional and amounts to infringement of the Applicant’s fundamental right to a fair hearing and not to be expelled from a State Party to the Charter except by virtue of a decision taken in accordance with the law, as enshrined and guaranteed under the pertinent provisions of CFRN and the Charter.

4. A DECLARATION that any criminal prosecution of the Applicant for the purpose of which the Respondents unlawfully expelled the Applicant from Kenya to Nigeria is illegal, unlawful, unconstitutional, and amounts to infringement of the Applicant’s fundamental right to a fair hearing, as enshrined and guaranteed under the pertinent provisions of CFRN and the Charter.

5. AN ORDER OF INJUNCTION restraining and prohibiting the Respondents from taking any further step in any criminal prosecution of the Applicant enabled by the said unlawful expulsion of the Applicant from Kenya to Nigeria.

6. AN ORDER mandating and compelling the Respondents to forthwith restitute or otherwise restore the Applicant to his liberty, same being his state of being as of 19th June 2021; and to thereupon repatriate the Applicant to his country of lawful domicile (to wit: the United Kingdom) to await the outcome of any formal request the Respondents may file before the competent authorities in Britain for the lawful extradition of the Applicant to Nigeria.

7. AN ORDER mandating and compelling the Respondents to issue an official Letter of Apology to the Applicant for the infringement of his fundamental rights; and publication of said Letter of Apology in three (3) national dailies.

8. AN ORDER mandating and compelling the Respondents to pay the sum of N500, 000,000 (Five Hundred Million Naira) to the Applicant, being monetary damages claimed by the Applicant against the Respondents jointly and severally for the physical, mental, emotional, psychological, property and other damages suffered by the Applicant as a result of the infringements of Applicant’s fundamental rights by the Respondents.

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