Nigeria’s Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja, Nigeria on Thursday upheld the appeal of the detained leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu.
The court also discharged and acquitted the embattled leader of the proscribed group declaring as illegal and unlawful, the abduction Kanu from Kenya to Nigeria on July 9, 2021 and quashed the entire terrorism charges brought against him by the Nigerian Government.
The appellate court held that the Nigerian Government breached all known local and international laws in the forceful rendition of Kanu to Nigeria thereby making the terrorism charges against him incompetent and unlawful.
Kanu had faulted the ruling of Justice Binta Nyako of a Federal High Court, Abuja, which ordered him to answer seven out of the 15-count terrorism charge against him.
He had prayed the appellate court to quash the entire charges and set him free on various grounds including that the purported offences were not committed in Nigeria.
It is not hidden that Kanu has repeatedly called for the breakaway of southeastern Nigeria to form the Republic of Biafra.
In October 2015, he was arrested by Nigerian authorities on an 11-count charge bordering on “terrorism, treasonable felony, managing an unlawful society, publication of defamatory matter, illegal possession of firearms and improper importation of goods, among others.”
He was granted bail on April 2017 for medical reasons.
However, Kanu fled the country in September 2017 after an invasion of his home by the military in Afara-Ukwu, near Umuahia, Abia State.
He was then sighted in Israel before relocating to London, UK. He has been under DSS detention since June 2021 when we was captured in Kenya and brought to Nigeria.
Vanguard reported that delivering its judgement on Thursday, October 13, the appellate court, in a decision by a three-man panel led by Justice Jummai Hanatu, said it was satisfied that FG flagrantly violated the law, when it forcefully rendered Kanu from Kenya to the country for the continuation of his trial.
The court held that the 15-count charge preferred against Kanu did not disclose the place, date, time and nature of the alleged offences before being unlawfully extradited to Nigeria in clear violation of international treaties.
It held that such extra-ordinary rendition, without adherence to due process of the law, was a gross violation of all international conventions, protocols and guidelines that Nigeria is signatory to, as well as a breach of the Appellant’s fundamental human rights.
The appellate court noted that Nigerian government failed to refute the allegation that the IPOB leader was in Kenya and that he was abducted and brought back to the country without any extradition proceeding.
The court also held that the Federal Government failed to disclose where Nnamdi Kanu was arrested despite the grave allegations of terrorism against him.