Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, has described how he was kidnapped in Kenya and transferred to Nigeria by secret agents.
Kanu detailed how he was caught in Kenya before being brought to Nigeria in a letter addressed by his lawyer, Aloy Ejimakor, to the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami.
In the letter, Ejimakor stated that his client entered Kenya on May 12, 2021, using his British passport, and afterwards settled down in the nation.
He went on to say that on the 19th of June, 2021, the IPOB leader was driving to Jomo Kenyatta on a personal errand when he was ambushed by about 20 armed men who handcuffed him, masked his face, and put him into their vehicle to an unknown location.
Kanu was tortured, maltreated, chained, and held to a location without being given the reason for his arrest, according to Kanu’s lawyer.
“We are Solicitors to Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, on whose behalf and instruction we most respectfully bring this complaint pursuant to Section 1 (a) and (b), Section 5, Section 6 of the anti-torture Act 2017; and Section 174 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999,” according to the letter written by Ejimakor.
“According to our Client’s information, the following are the details of this complaint:
“Under May 12, 2021, our Client entered the Republic of Kenya on his British passport and was allowed as such at Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport.” He moved into a temporary residence in Nairobi, Kenya, after his admission.
“On June 19, 2021, our client drove himself to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, Nairobi, Kenya on a personal errand. As soon as he pulled to a stop at the parking lot and alighted from his vehicle, about twenty well-armed persons violently accosted and abducted him, handcuffed him, blindfolded him, bundled him into a vehicle and sped away.
“His abductors took him to a secret private location (not a police station) somewhere in Nairobi, Kenya and chained him to the floor. He was neither shown a warrant of arrest or extradition nor told why he was abducted. The abductors did not tell him who they are but from their conversations, he surmised that they were working for the Government of Nigeria (GON) and its security agencies.
“While chained to the floor, his abductors took turns beating and torturing him to the point that he fainted several times and was intermittently revived when they poured cold water on him.
“During the tortures and beatings, his abductors taunted him, verbally degraded him and called him a “separatist Igbo Jew”. They also told him he will be “expelled to Nigeria to face death”. He was chained to the floor for eight (8) days and was thus forced to relieve himself of urine and excrement where he was chained.
“Throughout the duration of his secret captivity and torture, he was not allowed to bathe and was fed only on bland bread once a day and given non-sanitary water to drink; except for the presence of his abductors, he was in solitary confinement the entire eight days. Section 3(2) of the Anti Torture Act states that “Secret detention places, solitary confinement, incommunicado or other similar forms of detention, where torture may be carried on are prohibited”.
“The inhuman treatment, cruelty and degradation to which the abductors subjected our client and the external and internal injuries he sustained therefrom coupled with his pre-existing poor health made him live in dread, fear and terror that he was going to die in captivity and his body disappeared.
“His anguished entreaties to his abductors to get him some medication for his hypertension, heart condition and physical injuries were inhumanely refused and his pleas to be taken before a court or even official police or other law enforcement facility or allowed a phone call were flatly refused.
“Throughout the 8-day duration of the captivity and torture of our client, his torturers were in constant telephone conversations with and taking directives and instructions from the Nigerian High Commissioner to Kenya and other Nigerian officials. Section 2 of the Anti Torture Act makes a person complicit in torture when it is “inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity”. Similarly, Section 8(2) provide that “A superior military, police or law enforcement officer or senior government official who issues an order to a lower-ranking personnel to torture a victim for whatever purpose is equally liable as the principal”.
“On the eight-day, his abductors brought him out of the house, put him in a car, drove him straight to the tarmac of Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, where they evaded Kenyan immigration and forcibly bundled him into a private jet that departed the airport before noon on June 27, 2021, and arrived Abuja, Nigeria in the early evening of the same day.
“Throughout the duration of the flight from Nairobi to Abuja, our Client’s wrists and ankles were manacled so tightly that he was in extreme physical and mental pain for the entire duration of the flight. He also had the muzzle of a gun pointed to and roughly rubbed the nape of his neck throughout the duration of the flight.
“On arrival in Nigeria, our client was taken to and detained at the headquarters of the Nigerian Intelligence Agency (NIA) in Abuja. He spent the first night at the NIA detention facility, sleeping on the floor with very bright electric bulbs deliberately left on throughout the night, thus causing him extreme bodily heat, sleep deprivation and mental anguish.
“Our Client states that, from 29th June 2021 to date, he has been subjected to solitary confinement, lasting for 23 hours each day at the Headquarters of the State Security Services in Abuja. Since then, our Client has repeatedly requested independent medical examination by a physician of his own choice but the requests were denied. Section 7 of the Anti Torture Act provides that:
“A person arrested, detained or under custodial investigation shall have the right to be informed of his right to demand a physical and psychological examination by an independent and competent doctor of his own choice after interrogation, which shall be conducted outside the influence ofthe police or security forces.
“The medical report shall include in detail the history and the findings of the physical and psychological examination and shall be attached to the custodial investigation report; otherwise, such investigation report is deemed void.”
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