Sometime in the 80's when the current President, Muhammadu Buhari was military dictator, his regime accused a former finance minister, Umaru Dikko, of massive corruption and requested his extradition from London where he was, to Nigeria

The UK government flatly said no as it was against their policy to send people who have taken refuge in Britain, to countries with autocratic regimes that had no regard for rule of law or human rights

So Buhari attempted to kidnap Dikko instead. Umaru Dikko was snatched off the streets of London, bundled into a waiting vehicle, injected with a substance that made him lose consciousness. His lifeless body was then put in a crate, driven to Stansted Airport London where a private jet was waiting to fly him back Nigeria. But for eagle eyed custom officers who demanded to see what was in the crate, Dikko would have been a goner

Almost 40 years later, and back as civilian President, Buhari went back to his kidnapping ways, this time with IPOB leader, Nnamdi Kanu

Kanu was snatched in Nairobi, Kenya, and flown to Nigeria where he was arraigned on a 15 count charge. Kanu's Lawyers eventually approached the court of appeal to state that since the Buhari regime did not go through due process to bring Kanu to trial, and kidnapped him instead, they cannot profit from such illegality

The appeal court agreed and quashed all charges against Kanu, ordered his release and further stated that no court in Nigeria has the power to try Kanu unless government does the right thing of following due process to bring him to trial(which invariably means taking Kanu back to Kenya and formerly making an extradition request before a Kenyan court)

With this judgment, no future government will ever engage in the kidnapping ways of Buhari since doing so will only lead to dismissal of the case and discharging of the accused

May we never have a regime like that of Buhari that engages in international kidnapping