From Chidi Asonye, Umuahia
An Abia State High Court has rejected the objections filed by the Federal Government against the hearing of the fundamental rights enforcement suit filed by the leader of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB), Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.
Justice Ben Anya in ruling on the objections, rejected the federal government’s challenge of its jurisdiction to hear Kanu’s fundamental rights suit.
Kanu, through counsel, Barr. Aloy Ejimakor, had initiated the fundamental human rights suit against the Nigerian government.
In the suit, Ejimakor had urged the court to declare the invasion of the residence of the IPOB leader in Abia State in 2017 by members of the Nigerian Armed Forces as unlawful and an infringement of his constitutional right and asked for N1 billion as compensation for that act.
He also urged the court to declare Kanu’s re-arrest and torture in Kenya last year as unlawful.
The suit, which Ejimakor filed in August, further sought the court to stop the government from further prosecuting Kanu, mandating it to release the IPOB leader and tender an apology to Kanu, among others.
But, during the proceedings, the government challenged the jurisdiction of the court to hear the suit.
The ruling of the court to the objection was disclosed by Ejimakor in a tweet.
“Breaking: MNK wins as Abia High Court rejects Nigerian government’s challenge to its jurisdiction to hear Mazi Nnamdi Kanu’s fundamental rights suit. Judgment on other issues still in progress,” Ejimakor wrote.
