Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, has put the Director General of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), Mr. Ahmed Rufai Abubakar, on trial for his alleged extraordinary rendition (of Kanu) from Kenya to Nigeria last year .
Kanu, in the lawsuit filed on his behalf by his special counsel, Barr Aloy Ejimakor, wants the court to find that Mr. Abubakar abused his position by arresting him in Kenya on June 19, 2021 without following due process of law.
Among Kanu’s sentences submitted by Ejimakor are: “A statement that the arrest and imprisonment of the applicant in Nairobi, Kenya, amounts to false arrest and imprisonment.
“A statement that the defendant acted in bad faith and/or abused his public office by falsely arresting and imprisoning the claimant at said location in Kenya.
“A court order ordering the defendant to pay the plaintiff the sum of N20,000,000,000.00 (only twenty billion naira) as general and exemplary damages.
“A court order directing the defendant to write and deliver to the plaintiff an unreserved personal letter of apology. The apology letter will also be prominently and boldly published full page in two Nigerian newspapers with national circulation, namely Guardian Newspaper and The Sun.
“A court order ordering the defendant to pay the cost of this lawsuit.”
Ejimakor argued that, “By falsely arresting and imprisoning the claimant in Kenya, the defendant breached his legal duty which requires him to arrest and/or imprison the claimant in Kenya only in accordance with the law.”
Remember that Kanu’s arrest was condemned by the United Nations Human Rights Council, which, through its Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, issued a binding Opinion ordering the Federal Republic of Nigeria to release Kanu unconditionally and provide him with the opportunity to seek compensation/reparations.
According to Ejimakor, “the arrest of Mr. Kanu without an arrest warrant and without explanation of the reasons for his arrest violated his rights under article 9 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, article 9 of the Covenant and principles 2, 4 , 10, and 36 (2) of the Body of Principles.”
Our correspondent reports that an Umuahia-based Federal High Court on 26 October 2022 also ruled in favor of Kanu against the FG and ordered his restitution before his arrest, as well as compensation for the violation of his rights.
The current lawsuit, dated November 23, 2022, was filed with the Abia State High Court, Umuahia. THE WHISTLER deduced that of all the lawsuits that emanated from the handing over of Nnamdi Kanu, this is the first against Ahmed Abubakar, either in his personal or official capacity.