TheCable

Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), has sued Kenya over his extradition to Nigeria.

Kanu has been in DSS custody since his arrest and extradition to Nigeria. He is on trial for treasonable felony.

The IPOB leader filed the suit through Kingsley Kanunta, his brother.

He named Kenya’s interior cabinet secretary, director of immigration, director of criminal investigations, officer commanding police division (OCPD) of the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, and the attorney-general as respondents in the suit.

In a petition presented by Luchiri and Company Advocates, a law firm based in Kenya, the IPOB leader is said to have arrived Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in May from Kigali, Rwanda, on an East African tourist visa, to seek medical attention for a heart challenge and for “Indigenous People of Biafra-related work”.

According to Punch, the suit claimed that Kanu went to the airport on June 19 to pick someone, but never returned to his residence.

“The subject is believed to have been apprehended at the airport on June 19, 2021, and unlawfully detained for several days after which he was illegally and stealthily extradited to Nigeria without his British passport in utter non-compliance with laid down processes of laws in Kenya,” the petition reads.

“The subject (Kanu) is a British citizen resident in the United Kingdom. He formerly held Nigerian citizenship but renounced it in 2015. Consequently, his Nigerian passport was taken away from him by Nigerian authorities.”

According to the petition, Kanu’s extradition to Nigeria in June allegedly violated the extradition (contiguous and foreign countries) act Chapter 76 of the laws of Kenya.

Kanu, therefore, asked the court to declare his extradition “a violation of the fundamental rights and freedoms to equal protection of the law, human dignity, freedom and security, freedom of movement, fair administrative action, access to justice, the right to be represented in court and a fair hearing as guaranteed in the constitution of Kenya”.

He also sought an order for “exemplary and punitive damages” against the respondents “on account of their gross violation of the subject’s fundamental freedoms and rights as enumerated in the petition”.

Kanu asked the court for a declaration that “detaining the subject without justification and without informing him of the reasons for the detention, holding him incommunicado in deplorable and inhumane conditions” was a violation of rights protected by the constitution.

He also asked the court “to issue an order compelling the respondents to furnish him with the designations and ranks of state officers, public officers, police officers, agencies and departments, institutions and organs of government involved in his extradition”.