A Nigerian court has once again ruled in favour of the leader of the separatist movement Nnamdi Kanu, asking the federal government to return him to Kenya from where he was extradited, APA can report on Wednesday.
Aside from upholding a ruling earlier this month by an Appeal Court, the Nigerian High Court ordered the government to pay N500 million as damages to Mr Kanu over what it called his illegal abduction and exrradition from Kenya in June 2021.
Kanu, founder of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) movement for a breakaway state was acquitted and discharged earlier this month.
Three judges of the Appeal Court ruled that Kanu’s arrest abroad and subsequent extradition for trial over his campaign for the breakaway of southeastern regions from the rest of Nigeria has been illegal and moved to drop the charges and discharged him.
He was originally charged with 15 counts of high treason and terrorism, eight of which were dropped prior to the ruling.
He had denied all the charges.
The court upheld his appeal, which was filed and dated April 29 and marked CA/ABJ/CR/625/2022 for his discharge.
He was first arraigned on December 23, 2015, and was later granted bail on April 25, 2017.
The Court of Appeal declared as illegal and unlawful, the extradition of Mr. Kanu from Kenya to Nigeria and quashed the entire terrorism charges brought against him by the federal government.
Following his release on bail in 2017, Kanu had fled Nigeria to Kenya from where he was extradited in 2021.
The court held that the federal government breached all local and international laws in the forceful rendition of Kanu to Nigeria thereby making the terrorism charges against him incompetent and unlawful.
Justice Oludotun Adebola therefore voided all the charges against him.
He also proceeded to discharge Mr. Kanu from the alleged offences, stating that the failure of Nigeria to follow due process by way of his extradition was fatal to the charges against him.
WN/as/APA