The Court of Appeal, sitting in Abuja, has discharged the leader of the banned Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu.
The appellate court discharged and acquitted him of the seven-count charge pending against him before the Federal High Court in Abuja.
The court, in a decision by a three-man panel led by Justice Jummai Hanatu, said it was satisfied that FG 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 Appellants fundamental human rights.
The appellate court noted that FG failed to refute the allegation that the IPOB leader was in Kenya and that he was abducted and brought back to the country without any extradition proceedings. It held that FG 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.
More so, the court noted 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. It held that any extradition request must be in writing, with a statement indicating offences for which a person is wanted.
The appellate court further held that FGs action tainted the entire proceeding it initiated against Kanu and amounted to an abuse of criminal prosecution in general.
Nevertheless, it declared that it would be prejudicial for it to make an order on the proscription of IPOB since the issue is still on appeal, and held that the proscription order by the lower court would subsist until it is set-aside.
