The Charges were namely: treasonable felony; conspiracy to commit treasonable felony; illegal importation of radio equipment; and defamation of President Buhari. In extradition practice, these Charges are known as pre-extradition Charges or pre-rendition Charges, such as in this particular case.

Subsequently, in a slew of amendments of Charges, the then Attorney-General of Nigeria (Abubakar Malami, SAN) withdrew all but one of the said 4-count Charges and replaced them with an entirely new set of 14-count Charges that all bordered on terrorism and membership in a proscribed organization.

In the course of time, the Federal High Court, pursuant to applications made, reduced the Charges to the 7-counts that were later quashed by the Court of Appeal, thus leading to the celebrated judgment discharging Nnamdi Kanu and barring of his trial in Nigeria.

Without prejudice to any live judicial proceedings currently pending and concerning Nnamdi Kanu, the public has a right to be informed of whether, after the rendition, it is legal for the Attorney-General to abandon the pre-rendition Charges and array a whole new regime of Charges against Nnamdi Kanu, post-rendition. The simple answer is that it is illegal and below are the reasons:

Under the universally-recognized doctrine, known as the ‘Doctrine of Specialty’ which pertains to extraditions, a fugitive transferred from another country is subject to prosecution only for those offenses for which he or she was transferred. But where his transfer failed the muster of the law or constituted a rendition, he is not to be subjected to any trial or detention but promptly returned to whence he was brought. This is common law and Nigeria recognized it and enacted at Section 15 of Nigeria’s Extradition Act, which provides as follows: