October 27 has been fixed by Federal High Court in Umuahia, Abia State, to deliver judgment on the N25 billion fundamental rights suit filed by Nnamdi Kanu.
Kanu, the leader of the outlawed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), is challenging his arrest in Kenya by Nigerian security agents and “expulsion” to Nigeria.
His special counsel, Aloyis Ejimakor, who filed the suit in March on behalf of the IPOB leader, disclosed this in a statement, Wednesday.
Kanu is being held by Nigeria’s secret police, State Security Service (SSS) in Abuja, despite the Court of Appeal striking out the terrorism charges filed against him by the Nigerian government
The court, in the ruling on Thursday, ordered his release from the custody of the SSS and held that the IPOB leader was “extra-ordinarily renditioned” to Nigeria.
The extra-ordinary rendition was a flagrant violation of the country’s extradition treaty and also a breach of Kanu’s fundamental human rights, the court ruled.
Ejimakor said the fundamental rights judgement will hold on the scheduled date despite the ruling of the Court of Appeal.
He said the clarification was in response to “avalanche of inquiries” from various persons seeking to know if the fundamental rights judgement will still hold because of the Court of Appeal judgment.
“My office has not received, and we do not expect to receive, any notice from the court that the judgment has been adjourned,” he said.
The lawyer said although the matter before the Federal High Court Umuahia is related to Kanu’s extraordinary rendition to Nigeria, the issues and reliefs decided by the Court of Appeal in Abuja were “markedly different.”
“In summary, the judgement of the Court of Appeal in Abuja considered the narrow issue of the impact of extraordinary rendition on the jurisdiction of the Federal High Court in Abuja to subject Mazi Nnamdi Kanu to trial,” he said.
Ejimakor stressed that there will not be any sit-at-home on the judgment day.
The IPOB leader is asking the federal high court to declare his arrest, detention and prosecution illegal.
