The United Kingdom (UK) Court of Appeal has fixed June 22 to hear the appeal of the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu’s extraordinary rendition.
Special Counsel to Kanu, Aloy Ejimakor, who disclosed this, yesterday, commended Kanu’s family and his colleagues in the Bindmans LLP, the UK law firm handling the matter.
According to Ejimakor, in an initial order, the court ruled: “The grounds of appeal raise important issues.”
Kanu has remained in solitary confinement at the detention facility of Nigeria’s secret police, the Department of State Services (DSS), since he was renditioned from Kenyan in June 2021.
Ejimakor said: “In an order on May 8, 2023, Lord Justice Lewis, a senior British Court of Appeal judge, granted the family of Kanu permission to appeal the UK High Court judgment that found that British authorities could lawfully evade reaching any conclusion on whether Kanu has been tortured, subjected to extraordinary rendition and arbitrarily detained.
“It will be recalled that in a ruling on March 23, 2023, the UK High Court had declined Kanu’s family suit for judicial review of failure of British government to reach a firm view in Kanu’s extraordinary rendition.
“This earlier ruling prompted an application for leave of appeal to British Court of Appeal by the Bindmans LLP.
“In the current order, assuming jurisdiction over the appeal, Justice Lewis noted that the grounds of appeal raise important issues concerning the scope of obligations on the respondent.
“This was in relation to requests for consular assistance in respect of British nationals detained abroad, and the proper interpretation, as well as application of decision of the Court of Appeal in R(Abassi) v Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Office (2003) UKHRR 76.
“For those reasons, there is a compelling reason for the appeal to be heard within the meaning of CPR 52.6(1)(b). Permission is granted on all three grounds.”
Reacting to the ruling, Kingsley Kanu, younger brother to the IPOB’s leader, said: “My family is delighted that the Court of Appeal has continuously recognised the importance and urgency of Kanu’s case.”
Recall that the Abuja division of the appellate court had, on October 13, 2022, discharged Kanu of all 15-count terrorism charges brought against him by the Federal Government.
