The leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu, is set to sue the Nigerian government for breach of his fundamental human rights, demanding over 5o billion naira from the government.
Kanu is being held by the Department of State Services (DSS) at its headquarters in Abuja, after the Nigerian government repatriated him from Kenya in June 2021, an action his lawyers termed “illegal, unlawful, unconstitutional extradition.”
He is standing trial on charges bordering on treasonable felony and terrorism before a federal court in Abuja.
In the new suit, Kanu’s lawyers led by Chief Mike Ozekhome prayed the court to declare his arrest, torture and detention as unconstitutional.
The lawyers also prayed the court to declare that Kanu’s expulsion from Kenya to Nigeria was illegal and unlawful.
The reliefs sought include, “A DECLARATION that the detention and continued detention of the Plaintiff 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 a violation of the 1st 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 constitutional rights of the Plaintiff; and the UN Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), 1948.
“A DECLARATION that the forcible abduction of the Plaintiff in Kenya on the 19th of June, 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 th