The United Kingdom (UK) Court of Appeal has scheduled June 22 as the date to hear the appeal regarding the extraordinary rendition of Nnamdi Kanu, the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).

Aloy Ejimakor, Kanu’s Special Counsel, expressed his appreciation to Kanu’s family and Bindmans LLP, the UK law firm handling the case.

The court, in an initial order, acknowledged the significance of the appeal grounds.

Kanu has been held in solitary confinement at Nigeria’s Department of State Services (DSS) detention facility since his rendition from Kenya in June 2021.

Ejimakor stated that on May 8, 2023, Lord Justice Lewis, a senior judge of the UK Court of Appeal, granted Kanu’s family permission to appeal the UK High Court’s judgment, which found that British authorities were lawfully able to avoid reaching conclusions on whether Kanu had been tortured, subjected to extraordinary rendition, and arbitrarily detained.

The earlier ruling by the UK High Court, on March 23, 2023, had dismissed Kanu’s family’s request for judicial review regarding the British government’s failure to reach a definitive view on Kanu’s extraordinary rendition.

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This ruling prompted Bindmans LLP to seek leave to appeal to the UK Court of Appeal.

In the recent order, Justice Lewis acknowledged that the appeal grounds raised important issues concerning the obligations of the respondent in relation to requests for consular assistance for detained British nationals abroad.

The court also cited the significance of interpreting and applying the decision in R(Abassi) v Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Office (2003) UKHRR 76. Permission to appeal was granted on all three grounds.

Kingsley Kanu, Nnamdi Kanu’s younger brother, expressed delight at the Court of Appeal’s recognition of the case’s importance and urgency.

It is worth noting that the Abuja division of the appellate court had previously acquitted Kanu of all 15-count terrorism charges brought against him by the Federal Government on October 13, 2022.