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Delivering judgment in the appeal on Thursday, the appellate court declared as illegal and unlawful, the abduction of Kanu from Kenya to Nigeria and quashed the entire terrorism charges brought against him by the Federal Government.
It further held that the Federal Government breached all local and international laws in the forceful rendition of Kanu to Nigeria thereby making the terrorism charges against him incompetent and unlawful.
Justice Oludotun Adefope-Okojie voided and set aside the charges by the Federal Government against Kanu and also discharged him from the alleged offences.
Adefope-Okojie held that the failure of Nigeria to follow due process by way of extradition was fatal to the charges against Kanu.
The Appeal Court also held that the failure of the Federal Government to disclose where and when the alleged offences were committed was also fatal to the terrorism charges and made them liable to dismissal.
The Appellate Court said that the Federal Government having flagrantly breached the fundamental rights of Kanu lost the legal right to put him on trial.
The court held that laws are meant to be obeyed and that the Federal Government has no reason to have taken laws into her own hand in the illegal and unlawful way the matter of Kanu was handled.
Adefope-Okojie held that the failure of Nigeria to follow due process by way of the extradition process as prescribed by law was fatal to the charges against Kanu.
“By engaging in utter unlawful and illegal act and in breach of its own laws in the instant matter, the Federal Government did not come to equity in clean hand and must be called to order.
“With appalling disregard for local and international laws, the Federal Government has lost the right to put the appellant on trial for any offence.
“Treaties and Protocols are meant to be obeyed. No government in the world is permitted to abduct anybody without following the due process of extradition. Nigeria is not an exception or excused. Nigeria must obey her own law and that of international so as to avoid anarchy”, the judge declared.
Before Kanu filed the appeal against his trial, Justice Binta Nyako of the Federal High Court had dismissed the IPOB’s leader’s claim that the federal government illegally repatriated him from Kenya to Nigeria without following a formal extradition procedure.
In her ruling, Nyako held that his repatriation to Nigeria could not be said to be illegal when there was a “surviving bench warrant” for the IPOB leader’s arrest.
The judge had, in March 2019, ordered Kanu’s arrest after adjudging him to have jumped bail bringing his trial on charges of treasonable felony to a halt.
She held that the IPOB leader’s arrest in Kenya and repatriation to Nigeria were in compliance with her order in 2018 for his arrest to face trial.
“There is a bench warrant for the arrest of the defend a by. He is a fugitive that is wanted in court. The bench warrant survives until he is brought to court,” the judge stated.
In a separate ruling on Kanu’s preliminary objection challenging the 15 amended charges filed against him, Nyako struck out eight of them which bordered on treasonable felony and terrorism.
She ruled that the eight charges had not established any tangible offence against Kanu. The judge dismissed the defence team’s objection over the court’s jurisdiction to entertain the suit.
