Kenya shuns enquiries on Kanu’s repatriation – Ozekhome
Mike Ozekhome, the lead counsel to Nnamdi Kanu, the separatist leader facing treason trial, indicated in a letter to President Muhammadu that Kenyan authorities shunned enquiries on his client’s rendition to Nigeria.
The senior advocate urged the president to consider a ‘political solution’ to Kanu’s detention, by instructing the attorney-general of the federation to wield his powers under Section 174 of the 1999 Constitution to enter a “nolle prosequi.”
He stated that Kanu is being detained under cruel, inhuman and degrading conditions. He explained that Kanu was on a bail until men of the Nigerian Army invaded his house.
“It (the attack) was a state-sponsored assassination attempt on his life. As if that was not bad enough, Kanu’s subsequent sojourn in exile to seek refuge in London from where he travelled to Kenya, was brutally aborted on June 26, 2021, when he was savagely abducted, blindfolded, tortured and kept in solitary confinement for eight days in a secret location and forcibly brought back to Nigeria.
“This was carried out arbitrarily without due process and recourse to the judicial systems of Kenya, the UK and Nigeria.
“In Kenya, Kanu was tortured and made to disappear and kept out of circulation and public view in a secret facility for eight days by Kenyan authorities. It was an illegal collaboration between the Kenyan and Nigerian secret agents.”
Ozekhome submitted that Kanu’s continued detention violates all known laws and norms of both international and domestic laws, including Nigeria’s obligations under binding international treaties.
“Kenya did not reply to the 16-page report that indicted both the Nigerian and Kenyan governments for Kanu’s arrest and extraordinary rendition, torture and continued detention,” he said.
