Nnmadi Kanu: HURIWA reacts to N1bn court judgment

The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has expressed its support for the decision of the Hon judge of the Abia state high court in Umuahia which ordered the federal government to pay a sum of N1bn to Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, the detained leader of the now Proscribed indigenous people of Biafra (IPOB).

Recall that an Abia state high court on Wednesday declared that the invasion of Kanu’s residence in 2017 was illegal, and subsequently awarded a N1bn compensation to the detained leader of IPOB.

Reacting, HURIWA said the landmark judgment suffices for the illegal abduction that the Nigerian government subjected him to in Kenya.

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“The action of President Muhammedu Buhari’s federal government to abduct Mazi Nnamdi Kanu from Kenya is illegal and constitutionally a crime against humanity. The invasion of his father’s house and the killing by security forces of many of his friends and relatives are unlawful.

“Yes what the government did to Mazi Nnamdi Kanu by kidnapping him from Kenya is not justiciable under the Nigerian law.

“Secondly the import of the Abia state high court ruling in the case between Nnamdi Kanu against the federal government goes to show that the allegations made by Mazi Nnamdi Kanu that he was kidnapped are valid and substantial and that the attempt to kill him here in Nigeria was actually made by security forces.

More so where Kenya also denied knowing anything about his arrest. So we think with all due respect that the Nigerian government should apologize to Mazi Nnamdi Kanu and pay him one billion Naira without delay. Any move by the government to appeal this landmark and unimpeachable verdict will amount to colossal waste of public funds.

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HURIWA recalled that the embattled leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Mazi Nnamdi Kanu  defeated the Federal Government in a fundamental rights suit he filed against the Federal Government in  the Abia State High Court sitting in Umuahia, the state capital.

In the judgment, the Umuahia High Court ruled the case of the invasion of the country home of Nnamdi Kanu in his favor.

During the invasion, as many as twenty-six persons and several security dogs were reportedly killed.

The court ordered that the sum of one billion Naira be paid to the plaintiff which will be accompanied by an apology from the security operatives that perpetrated the act.

Justice Benson Anya of the Abia State High Court ruled that Kanu’s arrest, abduction and forceful return to Nigeria is illegal under local and international laws.

It was reported earlier that Nnamdi Kanu pleaded not guilty to the latest amended 15-count charge of treasonable felony proferred against him by the Department of State Services (DSS), on Wednesday in another the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja.