PERISCOPIC AND LEGAL ANATOMY OF EXTRAORDINARY RENDITION: REVISITING THE RE-ARREST OF MAZI NNAMDI KANU BY NIGERIA

Abstract

The need to combat global terrorism in the 21st century cannot be over-emphasised as being one of the challenges of globalisation. Given the transnationalism of crime and criminalities, there is always the need to arrest and repatriate fugitives or suspects to face justice, which is often done by treaties. However, there are times when the reality of international relations will not practically support the usual due process, thereby creating challenges to criminal justice. This reality often leads to alternative measures to attain justice. Following the terrorist attacks on the United States on the 11th of September 2001, more than ever before, the country authorised its Central Intelligence Agency to embark on an extraordinary rendition programme that would foster the arrest and detention of any suspect, especially the terrorist. Since then, the practice has been ongoing without any global check, although widely condemned. The Nigerian fugitive, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu was rearrested and repatriated to Nigeria in 2021 after a few years in exile. This article discusses extraordinary rendition as conceptualised in international law with the case of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu in view to determine the validity or otherwise of the widely circulated speculations, especially by his lawyers following his re-arrest that he was extraordinarily rendered by the Nigerian government in conspiracy with Kenyan government. The article found that, given the elements of extraordinary rendition and the practice, Kanu‘s re-arrest was not within the ambit of extraordinary rendition which is often hallmarked with human rights violations, illegal detention, transfer to another foreign country for interrogation, torture and many more without any judicial process. The article recommends that because extraordinary rendition violates human rights, the United Nations needs to develop a specific global Convention to tackle it forthwith for international human rights protection to be a reality as conceived.