Nnamdi Kanu demands $45m in compensation from Nigeria claiming he has been libelled

INDIGENOUS People of Biafra (Ipob) leader Nnamdi Kanu has demanded N20bn ($45.2m)  as compensation from the attorney-general of the federation Abubakar Malami as compensation for defamatory and libellous claims made against him.

Highly controversial, Mr Kanu has been campaigning for the recreation of the independent republic of Biafra which broke away from Nigeria between July 1967 and January 1970 during the civil war. His campaign, which has led to the phenomenal growth of Ipob, has set him at odds with the Nigerian government who him arrested and put on trial for treason.

While the case was still pending, Mr Kanu was granted bail in April 2017 on health grounds but skipped his bail after flouting the conditions given to him by the court and fled Nigeria. However, in a dramatic development in June last year, Mr Kanu was abducted in Kenya in a commando operation carried out by Nigerian security operatives  and flown to Nigeria where his trial has resumed.

However, he has challenged his arrest, saying it was illegal and nothing more than state-sponsored abduction. Mounting further legal campaigns against the government, Mr Kanu's lawyer, Aloy Ejimakor, said Mr Malami’s claim that his client jumped bail despite a court order clearing him was libellous.

Mr Malami had said: “To release or not to release Nnamdi Kanu is a function of law and the rule of law for that matter.  Let me talk first of the rule of law. This is someone that has been granted bail on account of charges that have been preferred against him at the court. Someone jumping bail to the international community, a case of a fugitive is established against the background of jumping the bail.

“Two, arising from the national security, this is someone that is charged with treason, incitement and destruction of civil authority, murder and assassination of others on account of his incitement, that boils down to issues of national security and criminality. Three, on account of international diplomacy, this is someone that has against his person, used the international community or a foreign country to launch an attack against a nation, against his nation for that matter."

Mr Ejimakor responded: “Despite the clear exoneration from jumping bail contained in the judgment exhibited and quoted above, you have, after 19th January 2022 when this judgment was rendered, defamed and libelled our client by your several utterances and publications in national dailies, where you falsely stated that our client jumped bail. In view of the said judgment of the Abia State High Court, your above utterances were false, malicious and reckless and they were read and heard worldwide and portrayed our client in light."

Ejimakor stated this in a letter addressed to Malami tagged: “RE: Pre-action notice and formal demand for settlement of the claim of defamation/libel of the character of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu grounded on your false, defamatory and libellous publications that Mazi Nnamdi Kanu jumped bail.”

Apart from compensation, he is requesting an unreserved personal letter of apology to be prominently and boldly published full-page in two Nigerian newspapers of national circulation, The Guardian and the Sun. He is also requesting that Mr Malami write and deliver to his superior officers and employers a legal opinion to the effect that Mr Kanu did not jump bail in view of the 19th January 2022 judgment of the high court of Abia State.