Kenya said IPOB leader didn’t undergo extradition proceedings, says Kanu’s lawyer

Aloy Ejimakor, who is lawyer to the detained Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) Leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, yesterday, disclosed that Government of Kenya had admitted that there was no record from any of the police stations within the country to indicate that Kanu was lawfully arrested and detained.

He said this was revealed on November 2, 2021 when the Government of Kenya filed its defence to the suit Mr. Kingsley Kanunta Kanu (the younger brother of the detained Kanu) filed in Kenya on behalf of his detained brother (Mazi Nnamdi Kanu).

Ejimakor argued that the implication of Kenya’s defence was that Kanu (the IPOB leader) was renditioned and should therefore be released.

In a statement by the younger Kanu (the plaintiff of the suit in Kenya), which Ejimakor sent to The Guardian yesterday, he (younger Kanu) recalled that following his detained brother’s extraordinary rendition in June this year, the Kenyan government had publicly issued series of statements denying its complicity in the abominable act.

According to younger Kanu: “In the said defence that it filed in court, Kenya has not only persisted in its denials, but it went further to confirm that my brother was denied the benefit of the due process of extradition in Kenya or even a lawful arrest.

“In particular, the defence the Kenyan Government filed in court stated in major part that there are no extradition proceedings to justify that it is responsible for the subject’s extradition.

“That there is no record from any of the police stations within the country to indicate that the subject in issue was lawfully arrested and detained for purposes of commencing extradition proceedings.

“It needs to be emphasised that the above admissions have officially confirmed our long-held position that Mazi Nnamdi Kanu’s transfer from Kenya to Nigeria is unlawful, and not lawful as was claimed by the Nigerian government.

“This latest revelation, officially made in open court by Kenya, further solidifies our abiding position that the Nigerian government cannot benefit from its own wrong by subjecting my brother to trial.”

Younger Kanu further said that as the scheduled December 7, 2021 next hearing date approaches, more legal processes would be in view, adding that “our immediate goal is to secure the unconditional release of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu from detention.”