The Federal High Court in Abuja has dismissed the fundamental human rights suit filed against the federal government by the detained leader of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu.
Kanu sued the Attorney-General of the Federation and the Department of State Service for N1 billion in damages for alleged rights violations.
He said the DSS violated his right to a fair hearing by blocking his lawyers’ visits while in detention. He also claimed that the DSS eavesdropped on his conversations with his lawyers.
Delivering judgment on Monday, Justice James Omotosho ruled that Kanu failed to provide credible evidence to sustain his claims.
Kanu has been on trial, on allegations of terrorism, since 2021 when he was unlawfully arrested in Kenya and brought to Nigeria.
He was arrested in June 2021 and arraigned in July on a 15-count charge, out of which Justice Binta Nyako of the Federal High Court in Abuja ordered him to answer to seven.
On 13 October 2022, the Appeal Court in Abuja discharged and acquitted him of all the charges.
The appellate court held that the Federal High Court lacked the jurisdiction to try him given his 'abduction and extraordinary rendition to Nigeria' which violates the OAU convention and protocol of extradition.
That court ruling was, however, overturned by the Supreme Court, which ruled on 15 December 2023 that unlawful detention cannot stop the Federal High Court from trying Kanu.
