Justice Evelyn Anyadike of the Federal High Court in Umuahia has awarded N500 million in damages against the Federal Government of Nigeria for violating Nnamdi Kanu’s rights.
The court on Wednesday also ordered the government to take Mr. Kanu back to Kenya from where he was extradited.
In a fundamental right enforcement suit, Mr. Kanu approached the court through his special counsel, Aloy Ejimakor, seeking to enforce his fundamental rights. The court ruled in his favour.
In the suit, Mr. Kanu challenged his extradition from Kenya by the agents of the federal government alleging that he was kidnapped from Kenya and brought back to Nigeria to stand trial.
While the FG prayed the court to dismiss the suit on the grounds that it is an abuse of the court process, Kanu’s lawyer argued that Kanu cannot be subjected to any trial because he was unlawfully renditioned.
Consequently, he asked the court to compel FG to pay his client the sum of N25 billion for infringing on his fundamental rights.
he sought among other reliefs “An order mandating and compelling the respondents to pay the sum of N25,000,000,000.00 (Twenty-Five Billion Naira) to the applicant, being monetary damages claimed by the applicant against the respondents jointly and severally for the physical, mental, emotional, psychological, property and other damages suffered by the applicant as a result of the infringements of applicant’s fundamental rights by the respondents”.
He also sought an order to halt Kanu’s prosecution and restore him to the status quo before his rendition on June 19, 2021.
In her ruling, Justice Evelyn held that Mr. Kanu’s extradition from Kanu without recourse to legal processes was an abuse of his fundamental rights.
She held that the FG failed to provide evidence to disprove Kanu’s claim that he was arrested and tortured in Kenya before bringing back to Nigeria.
She, therefore, ordered the Federal government to pay Mr. Kanu the sum of N500 million as damages for his illegal abduction and violation of his rights.
