The Federal High Court sitting in Abuja on Friday dismissed a N20 billion lawsuit that Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the banned Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), filed against Abubakar Malami, the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF).
Kanu’s lawyer, Aloy Ejimakor, filed the suit to ask for N20 billion in damages for his illegal removal from Kenya in June of last year so that he could keep facing terrorism and treasonable felony charges.
The Court of Appeal in Abuja threw out the charges against Kanu on October 13 because the way he was taken away was wrong.
Newsmen report that Kanu had filed a lawsuit against Malami and Ahmed Abubakar, the Director-General of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA).
But Judge Inyang Ekwo threw out the case when I.C. Nworgu, representing the IPOB leader, told the court that the plaintiff had decided to drop the case.
Nworgu said that he had already sent the notice of withdrawal.
Kanu filed the application under Order 50, Rule 2(1) of the FHC Civil Procedure Rules, 2019. It was labeled FHC/ABJ/CS/1702/2022.
Newsmen report that on October 27, Ekwo set Friday for the suit to be heard.
The application, which was dated and filed on September 23, asked for “a declaration that the defendant’s arrest and imprisonment of the plaintiff (Kanu) at a location in Kenya and the subsequent imprisonment of the plaintiff on the aircraft that took him from Kenya to Nigeria were false arrest and false imprisonment.
“A declaration of this honorable court that the defendants acted in bad faith and/or abused their public offices in falsely arresting and falsely imprisoning the plaintiff at the said location in Kenya and said aircraft.
” An order of this honorable court directing the defendants to, jointly and severally, pay the plaintiff the sum of N20,000,000,000.00 (Twenty Billion Naira only) being general and exemplary damages.
“An order of this honorable court directing the defendants to write and deliver an unreserved personal letter of apology to the plaintiff separately.”
He asked the court to order the defendants to write him letters of apology that would be “prominently and boldly published full page in two Nigerian newspapers of national circulation.”
Among other things, he asked the court to order the defendants to pay the cost of the suit.
In September 2017, the military broke into Kanu’s home in Afara-Ukwu, near Umuahia, Abia State. He then left the country.
In June last year, the federal government caught Kanu and sent him back to Nigeria.
He was sent back to Nigeria so that the charges he faced for his separatist activities could be kept going.
Kanu is being tried at the Federal High Court in Abuja. This court told the State Security Service to keep him in custody (SSS).
But on October 13, a three-person Court of Appeal panel led by Oludotun Adefope-Okojie threw out the charges of terrorism and treasonable felony against the leader of IPOB.
Kanu was released from jail after the court threw out a seven-count charge brought before Binta Nyako of the Federal High Court in Abuja.
Adefope-Okojie said that sending Kanu from Kenya to Nigeria against his will in June 2021 broke both local and international laws.
The Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) ‘s office did not follow the appellate court’s decision to release Kanu without conditions. Instead, it filed an appeal with the Supreme Court.
But on October 28, the Court of Appeal put its decision on hold until the Federal government’s appeal was heard.