Nigerian Court Orders Nnamdi Kanu's Return to Extradition Country

A federal high court in Umuahia, in south-eastern Nigeria's Abia state, has ordered the Nigerian government to return the detained pro-Biafra separatist leader, Nnamdi Kanu, to the country where he was arrested and extradited from last year.

In a ruling on Wednesday, presiding judge, justice Evelyn Ayandike, said that the arrest and extradition of the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (Ipob), tagged in legal terms as Extraordinary Rendition, was a violation of his fundamental rights.

The court also awarded 500m naira ($1.2m; £1m) of damages to Mr Kanu.

His lawyers challenged what they had described as, “his abduction and extraordinary rendition from Kenya” and requested the court to “order his return to Kenya, where he was abducted, or UK, his country of abode”.

Kenya's government has denied having any links to his arrest or extradition to Nigeria.

The ruling comes barely two weeks after the Court of Appeal in the capital, Abuja, discharged the separatist leader on terrorism charges, in a huge blow to the Nigerian government.

Mr Kanu’s lawyers said that the government lacked the power to prosecute him in Nigeria, based on the manner in which he was brought into the country.

The government is yet to react to the latest judgement by the High Court in Umuahia.

It has also not released the Ipob leader as the ruling of the Court of Appeal instructed, but has opted to appeal against the judgement.