A source privy to the illegal abduction of the IPOB leader has revealed to SaharaReporters how Kanu was abducted in Kenya and brought to Nigeria.
More details have emerged of how Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) was rearrested by the Nigerian government.
A source privy to the illegal abduction of the IPOB leader has revealed to SaharaReporters how Kanu was abducted in Kenya and brought to Nigeria.
Nigeria’s Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN) on Tuesday, June 29, 2021, confirmed that Kanu had been rearrested.
At a joint press briefing with the State Security Service (SSS), also known as the Department of State Services (DSS) in Abuja, Malami said Kanu was rearrested and returned to Nigeria on Sunday, June 27.
He did not, however, give details of where Kanu was arrested and the diplomatic collaborations that may have been involved in the operation.
According to him, the IPOB leader was arrested through “collaborative efforts of Nigerian intelligence and security services”.
Kanu, who is being prosecuted on charges of treasonable felony, was thereafter arraigned at the Federal High Court in Abuja. It was his first court appearance since he fled Nigeria in September 2017 after an invasion of his home by the military in Afara-Ukwu, near Umuahia in Abia State.
"Kanu had arrived in Kenya and settled down in a house. On June 19, 2021, he drove himself in a car to the international airport to meet a person arriving in the country for a high-level IPOB meeting.
"He drove into the underground parking lot at the airport and was arrested before exiting the car.
"He was taken to a house and brutalised for 8 days while the Nigerian authorities perfected how to forcefully relocate him to Nigeria
"He was travelling on a British passport, not a Nigerian passport as alleged by Malami. He was brought into Nigeria on a Saturday and arraigned on Monday.
"Buhari upon learning of his abduction decided to cancel his trip to the UK to manage the diplomatic fallouts at home instead of going to London.
"Kanu was interrogated in the presence of his lawyers in the DSS office in Abuja. The Nigerian government didn’t get his passport, laptop, and three major phones.
"He was taken out of Kenya without passing through immigration."
There have been reports that INTERPOL was involved in Kanu's arrest but the top dismissed that, saying "INTERPOL wasn’t involved".
UK Newspaper, The Guardian, had reported that Kanu got a Kenya visa which was to expire in June, and he had been around in the country before his sudden arrest and extradition.
“Evidence seen by the Guardian shows Kanu entered Kenya this year on his British passport on a visa expiring in June. His UK passport remains in Kenya. Kanu was not in possession of a Nigerian passport, his family said, and he has verbally renounced his Nigerian citizenship in broadcasts.
“The abduction of a person from a foreign country with the aim of rendition to justice is illegal under international law,” the UK newspaper report says.
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SaharaReporters had on Wednesday reported that Kanu recounted his experience in Kenya while speaking with his lawyer, Ifeanyi Ejiofor, saying he was “mercilessly beaten and tortured” in the East African country before his extradition to Nigeria.
Ejiofor had confirmed the words of Kanu during an interview, adding that Kanu told him how he was detained, not in any Kenya official detention centre but a private residence for about eight days, before his extradition to Nigeria.
The lawyer had said, “There was a clear collaboration between the Kenya government and the Nigerian government. I am happy that they now deny the fact that Kanu was arrested there.
“But by the time we finish with them at the International Criminal Court, they will never remain the same. He was arrested at the airport there, and he was taken to an unknown residence. He was subjected to inhuman treatment.
“Kanu was tortured, maltreated, and mercilessly beaten, as confirmed by him to us. After spending eight days in their illegal custody, they now beckoned to the Nigerian government. Kanu was lifeless and unconscious by the time they were bringing him to Nigeria.
“To tell you the level of their conspiracy and the desperation to get him, they brought him here on a Sunday and the federal government is fully aware that I am his legal counsel.
“He was brought into the country and inflicted with several injuries and he is having many medical issues today. It was at the behest of the Federal government that Kenya was doing those things. This is against all international laws. We are going to address an international court at that level.”
The Kenyan authorities had denied that they had anything to do with the arrest and extradition of Kanu to Nigeria.