The Appeal Court in Abuja on Thursday struck out the terrorism charge filed against Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra.
According to The Cable, the three-membered panel of the court delivering their judgement held that Kanu’s extradition from Kenya to Nigeria to stand trial was illegal.
Sequent to the recent Appeal Court’s judgement, Kanu was, on April 8, re-arraigned on an amended 15-count charge bordering on treasonable felony preferred against him by the Federal Government, the presiding judge, however, struck out eight of the 15 counts in the charge.
But Kanu, through his team of lawyers led by Mike Ozekhome, on September 13, filed an appeal marked CA/ABJ/CR/625/2022, praying the court to quash the remaining seven counts for being devoid of merit and acquit Kanu immediately.
Moving the application at the court session, Ozekhome referred to the government’s extradition of his client from Kenya to Nigeria as an abduction.
The senior lawyer argued that under the “doctrine of speciality” as provided for in section 15 of the Extradition Act, the federal government ought to have proceeded to try Kanu on the initial five-count charge on which he was re-arraigned before he fled the country.
He further argued that Kenya, being the country from where Kanu was arrested and extraordinarily renditioned to Nigeria, ought to have authorised his extradition and the new charges he is facing, which they didn’t.
The counsel to the federal government, David Kaswe, however, asked the court to dismiss the appeal for want of merit.
