A court in Umuahia, southeastern Nigeria, on Wednesday ordered the Nigerian government to compensate the leader of the separatist Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, and facilitate his return to Kenya, on the grounds that his arrest and extradition were illegal.
The judges have thus decided that the situation experienced by the Biafran separatist leader since his arrest in Kenya constitutes «a violation of his fundamental rights», for which they have ordered that he be compensated with 500 million naira (1.1 million euros), according to information from the newspaper ‘The Punch’.
The decision comes two weeks after a Nigerian Court of Appeal exonerated Kanu and dropped the terrorism charges against him in a major blow to the government. The same court then ruled that the prosecution violated the law when it ordered Kanu’s forcible transfer from Kenya in 2021 to continue the trial against him.
Kenyan authorities, however, have denied any connection with his arrest or extradition to Nigeria. His lawyers have insisted that the government lacks the power to try him in the country and have called on the authorities to allow his return to Kenya, «where he was abducted» or his transfer to the United Kingdom.
Proceedings against the Biafran leader date back to his arrest in 2015, although they were suspended in 2017 after he fled Nigeria following a security operation at his home in Abia state, launched shortly after he was released on bail in April that year.
However, he was extradited to Nigeria in July 2021 after being arrested in Kenya.
