16th July, 2021
Leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra Nnamdi Kanu has given more details of how he was kidnapped in Kenya, tortured for eight days and handed over to Nigerian security operatives.
He gave the details to his Special Counsel Aloy Ejimakor, who visited him in a DSS detention centre in Abuja.
Ejimakor, who spoke with the BBC Igbo said Kanu was held incommunicado and chained to bare floor for eight days in a nondescript private facility in Kenya.
“I met with His Excellency today for nearly 3hrs. He greets you all. He’s in high spirits despite the tribulations. He’s looking forward to overcoming this damned rendition sooner than later. He requests that there should be no disunity; that the Family must remain focused.”
Ejimakor said Kanu was blindfolded and flown to Abuja on a private jet on Sunday, June 27th, 2021 from Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, Nairobi as the only passenger onboard.
He said during his meeting with the IPOB leader, Kanu revealed he was driven to the airport tarmac and very close to the plane without passing through Immigration.
“The people that abducted him said that they were told by their sponsors that Kanu was a Nigerian terrorist linked to the Islamic terrorists in Kenya, presumably Al-Shabab.
“But after several days when they discovered his true identity, they tended to treat him less badly. Despite that, they told him they felt committed to hand him over to those that hired them,” Ejimakor said.
He said no warrant of arrest was provided.
“Kanu was in point of fact tortured and subjected to untold cruel and inhuman treatment in Kenya. He said his abductors disclosed to him that they abducted him at the behest of Nigerian government.
“He was blindfolded and driven to the tarmac very close to the plane without passing through the airport immigration. The plane departed Nairobi at about 12 pm and arrived Abuja in the evening.
“Kanu was flown to Abuja in the private jet on Sunday 27th June, 2021 from Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, Nairobi and that he was the lone passenger,” he said.
Ejimakor said Kanu was interviewed for the first time by three DSS operatives in his presence.
“The interview was revealing as it contained certain new allegations that were never heard of before. But all the questions relate directly or indirectly to his status as the leader of IPOB.
“I observed that despite what he has passed through, he was in high spirits and looked forward to overcoming the extraordinary rendition that brought him to Nigeria.
“In my assessment of how the case now stands, I wager that before any court can subject Kanu to trial for any offences, it has to first conduct a trial within trial on the grievous incident that forced him to leave Nigeria and the equally grievous incident that forced him back to Nigeria,” he said.
“No court of law, conscience and equity will overlook those two incidents and proceed to trial,” Ejimakor said.
Ejimakor also said in another interview that he delivered two forms to Mr Kanu during the visit on Wednesday.
One of the forms was from the British High Commission and the other was from a law firm in London, Bindmans. Kanu is also a British citizen.
“The forms will open a whole new chapter of legality, including the filing of a Writ of Mandamus, against the Nigerian government in a UK court to compel it to produce Kanu, because his detention is illegal under the British law. It was an extraordinary rendition, which is an international crime by which a state kidnaps a suspect or a fugitive without the due process of law,” the lawyer told PUNCH.
“They will be filing all these processes in the UK and there is a prospect of a UK court assuming universal jurisdiction or extra-territorial jurisdiction and reaching into Kenya so that they can arrest every Kenyan official, either authorised or not, and every Nigerian official involved in this case.”
Mr Ejimakor said the DSS collected the forms, saying they must first go through the vetting of its legal unit.