Ibekimi Oriamaja Reports
At the weekend, Aloy Ejimakor, Special Counsel to the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, revealed that a British Court had issued an order granting Kanu permission to seek judicial review of the UK government’s refusal to intervene in his extraordinary rendition from Kenya to Nigeria last year.
In a statement, Ejimakor stated that Kanu’s younger brother, Kingsley, initiated the CO/2543/2022 case in the High Court of Justice, Queen’s Bench Division Administrative Court.
The Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Affairs is the case’s respondent. He cited the notification of the judge’s decision on permission to apply for judicial review CPR 54.11, 54.12 in the British High Court, stating that Mrs Justice Ellenbogen ordered that “the permission to apply for judicial review is granted” following the consideration of the parties’ documents.
He also stated that if Kanu is granted permission to seek judicial review, the “application is to be scheduled for one day, at an in-person hearing at the Royal Courts of Justice, and the parties are to provide a written time estimate within seven days of service, if they disagree with this direction.”
Ejimakor went on to say that the claimant’s challenge is based on the respondent’s refusal to communicate with the claimant and his family about whether the claimant’s brother has been subjected to extraordinary rendition.
According to the case management direction, the claimant must pay the relevant fee to continue the application for judicial review within seven days of permission being granted, or the court will send the claimant a notice requiring payment within a set time frame (normally seven additional days).
“Within 35 days of permission being granted, the respondent and any party who wishes to contest or support the claim must file and serve detailed grounds and any written evidence or documents not already filed in a paginated and indexed bundle (in both hard copy and electronic copy), with the detailed grounds made as concise as possible and must not exceed 40 pages without the court’s permission.”
“As the detailed grounds, the respondent may rely on her summary grounds.” In order to do so, she must notify the court and the other parties in writing within the time limit for filing detailed grounds.
“Any claimant’s application to serve evidence in reply shall be filed and served within 21 days of the date on which the respondent serves evidence pursuant to paragraph 2 above.”
