The leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu, on Tuesday, asked a High Court in Abia State to award him N5bn as damages for the breach of his fundamental human rights.
The IPOB leader secured an order from an Abia State High Court in Umuahia to serve by substituted means an application for the enforcement of his fundamental rights.
Kanu’s lawyer, Aloy Ejimakor, in Suit No. HIH/FR14/2021, alleged many instances of what he described as the unbroken chain of infringements that began with the 2017 extrajudicial attempt on Kanu’s life in Abia State, his involuntary flight to safety/exile, his abduction in Kenya, and his extradition to Nigeria.
The respondents in the suit are the Federal Government of Nigeria, the Attorney General of the Federation, Chief of Army Staff and five others.
Ejimakor had prayed the court to declare that the arrest, torture and detention of Kanu were unconstitutional.
He also prayed the court to declare that Kanu’s expulsion from Kenya to Nigeria, as well as the military invasion of his building in Abia State, were illegal and unlawful.
One of the reliefs sought include “an order mandating the respondents to pay Kanu the sum of N5bn, being monetary damages claimed jointly and severally for the physical, mental, emotional, psychological, and other damages suffered by Kanu as a result of the infringement of his fundamental rights.”
The case was adjourned till September 21, 2021 for hearing.
