The fundamental rights complaint brought by Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), challenging his detention in Kenya by Nigerian security agents and “expulsion” to Nigeria has been set for delivery on January 19 by a State High Court in Umuahia, Abia State.
Kanu’s special counsel, Aloy Ejimakor, who filed the complaint on behalf of the IPOB leader on August 27, last year, revealed this in a statement on Tuesday.
Nigeria’s secret police are holding Mr Kanu in Abuja, where he is on trial for alleged treason.
An Abia court has been asked to deem the IPOB leader’s arrest, detention, and prosecution unconstitutional.
He wants the Nigerian authorities to release him and “repatriate him to Britain, his country of abode and citizenship,” according to him.
Kanu told the court that his detention in Kenya and subsequent trial in Nigeria violated his fundamental rights to personal liberty and a fair trial, which are guaranteed by the Nigerian Constitution and the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights.
He is also asking the court to declare as unlawful the military invasion of his home in Abia State in September 2017, and to compel the Nigerian government to tender a public apology to him “for the infringement of his fundamental rights”.
The respondents in the suit include, the Federal Government of Nigeria, the Attorney General of the Federation, the Chief of Army Staff, Brigade Commander,14 Brigade Ohafia, and the Inspector General of Police.
Others are the Commissioner of Police, Abia State, the Director General of the SSS, and the Abia State Director of the SSS.
IPOB, which is leading the agitation for an independent republic, Biafra, which they want carved out from Nigeria’s South-east and parts of South-south, has been accused of being responsible for the deadly attacks in the South-east and South-south.
Mr Kanu was previously arrested and released on bail. He had jumped bail in 2017.
He was “intercepted” in Kenya in June, last year, by Nigerian security agents and brought back to Abuja.
Ojelabi, the publisher of Freelanews, is an award winning and professionally trained mass communicator, who writes ruthlessly about pop culture, religion, politics and entertainment.
