Plaintiff asks court to compel Britain to arrest, repatriate Kanu

A plaintiff, Donald Okonkwo, in a newly filed case has urged the
Federal High Court in Abuja to compel the British High Commission
to arrest and repatriate the leader of the Indigenous People of
Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu, to Nigeria.

He filed the suit on Monday, joining the British High
Commission, the Director-General of the Department of State Service
and the Attorney-General of the Federation as the respondents to
the suit.

He said violent activities of Kanu and members of his group such
as their recent attack on the immediate-past Deputy Senate
President, Ike Ekweremadu, in Germany, and the threat by the group
to arrest President Muhammadu Buhari in Japan were creating fears
in the minds of innocent citizens.

He urged the court to declare among others that the BHC “is
under obligation to repatriate the IPOB separatist leader, Mazi
Nnamdi Kanu, being a fugitive cum terrorist from the Great Britain
where he has been hiding since September 2017 under the covers of
his citizen status back to Nigeria, so he can stand his trial for
treasonable felony”.

He asked the court to order both the BHC and the DSS boss to
immediately “arrest and repatriate” the IPOB leader to Nigeria to
face his trial.

He also urged the court to order the BHC “to tender public
apology to the Federal Government of Nigeria in three national
dailies within 21 days from date of delivery of judgment in this
suit for her complicity in facilitating the escape for justice and
harbouring” Kanu “thereby allowing him to cause innocent Nigerian
citizens serious emotional trauma”.

Noting that the IPOB was a proscribed group in Nigeria, the
plaintiff narrated how Kanu was charged before Justice Binta Nyako
of the Federal High Court in Abuja.

He also stated how the court later granted him bail, only for
the IPOB leader to be pictured months later while praying at the
Wailing Wall of Jerusalem, Israel, on October 19, 2018.

“That to make matters worse, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu eventually
disappeared to Great Britain in September 2017 in an attempt to
escape trial and the arms of the law after a week of high profile
clashes between his group, Indigenous People of Biafra and the
Nigerian Army,” the plaintiff said in a supporting affidavit.

The plaintiff accused the British High Commission of “arranging”
and “facilitating the illegal travels” of Kanu to ensure he escaped
justice from Nigeria where he was facing trial bordering on
treasonable felony.

Subscribe ToNairalaw News!

Aregbesola Tasks Interior Services to Improve Internal
Security

The Federal Government has again charged security agencies under
the Ministry of Interior to brace up in the fight against
insecurity in line with the policy direction of the Federal
Government which is improving security, revitalizing the economy
and entrenching transparency in the conduct of government
business.

The Honourable Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Adesoji
Aregbesola gave this charge today when the Permanent Secretary,
Barr. Georgina Ekeoma Ehuriah, MON officially handed over the
affairs of the Ministry to him in his Office in Abuja.

Aregbesola, in his speech, titled, “WE MUST SET FORTH NOW,”
revealed: “There is no denying the fact that we have internal
insecurity, but it is not peculiar to us as a nation, it is like
that all over the world, each nation with its own peculiarities,
what is important is how we respond to the security challenges
confronting us.”

“From antiquity and political philosophy, the primal
responsibility of government is the welfare of the people,
protection of lives and property and maintenance of peace. It is
the foundational responsibility on which other responsibilities are
built. This is the basis on which we campaigned and Nigerians voted
for us. It is a sacred mandate we are fully determined to deliver
on,” he stressed.

The Minister further called on the Services, officers and staff
of the Ministry to join hands with the President Muhammadu Buhari
led Administration in protecting lives and property of the
citizens, in line with the Ministry’s mandate with a view to moving
the country to the next level of socio-economic development.

Aregbesola said, ‘we must set forth now for an improved internal
security’, adding, ‘Ours is to prevent crimes, as the basis of
protecting lives and property, it will become so difficult to
commit crime, once people know they cannot get away with it, so
brace up for the task’, he emphasised.

He pointed out that the Correctional Service should ensure that
all the correctional centres across the country are habitable,
comfortable and clean for inmates. Adding that inmates should be
well fed and given proper health care so as to make transition to a
new life very easy for them, in line with the new laws of the
Service.

The Minister opined that the primary role of our correctional
services should be, to make those who have the opportunity of
returning to the society, become reformed, rather than turning them
to becoming terrors to the society by abusing and brutalising
them.

He also charged the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) to ensure
proper security of the nation’s borders, while calling on the
Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) to improve on
their intelligence gathering in the various communities.

Aregbesola who said that insecurity transcends kidnapping,
banditry and other social vices but also includes food insecurity,
natural disasters such as fire, therefore called on the Federal
Fire Service (FFS) to ensure prompt response and prevention of all
forms of fire disaster in the country.

Earlier, while presenting the handing over document to the new
Minister, the Permanent Secretary, Barr. Georgina Ekeoma Ehuriah,
MON, said: “This handing over note highlights the major policies,
programmes and activities of the Ministry of Interior, which has
immediate bearing on your statutory role as the chief policy
formulator and adviser to the administration on internal security
and public safety matters”.

Barr. Ehuriah added that, “all the major accomplishments that
were recorded by the Ministry, under the former Honourable Minister
of Interior, Lt. Gen (rtd) Abdulrahman Dambazau, and those few ones
that took place during the brief period that I was in charge of the
administration of the Ministry are contained herein.”

She that the mandate of the Ministry is to foster and ensure the
maintenance of internal security and citizenship integrity for the
promotion of good governance in the country.

SIGNED
Mohammed Manga
Director (Press & Public Relations)
For: Honourable Minister