The Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja has acquitted the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu of the terrorism charge instituted against him by the Federal Government.
Consequently, the Court on Thursday discharged and acquitted Kanu of the seven-count charge filed against him before the Federal High Court in Abuja.
In a decision reached by a three-man panel led by Justice Jummai Hanatu, the appellate Court said it was satisfied that Federal Government flagrantly violated the law, when it forcefully rendered Kanu from Kenya to the country for the continuation of his trial.
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.
Additionally, the Court noted that the Federal Government failed to refute the allegation that the IPOB leader was in Kenya and he was abducted and brought back to the country without any extradition proceeding.
It further held that the government was “ominously silent on the issue” which it described as very pivotal in determining whether the trial court would still have the jurisdiction to continue with the criminal proceeding before it.”
“In law, that is a costly failure and such failure is an admittance by the Respondent. Where a party fails to controvert a deposition by an opponent, the issue not contested is deemed conceded”, the court said.
According to the appellate Court, the onus was on the Federal Government to prove the legality of the Appellant’s arrest and return from Kenya.
Similarly, the court held that Nigeria is a signatory to OAU Convention which it ratified on April 28, 2022, as well as the Charter of Human and Peoples Rights, which it said prescribed how a wanted person could be transferred from one country to the other.
Maintaining that any extradition request must be in writing, with a statement indicating offences for which a person is wanted, the Appeal Court said the government’s action tainted the entire proceeding it initiated against Kanu and amounted to “an abuse of criminal prosecution in general”.
The panel also said; “The court will never shy away from calling the Executive to order when it tilts towards Executive recklessness”, even as it accused the Nigerian government of engaging in “serious abuse of power”.
However, on the proscription of IPOB, the appellate court said it would be pre-judicial for it to make an order since the issue is still on appeal, stressing that the proscription order by the lower court would subsist until it is set-aside.
