Nigerian Academics have welcomed the judgement by the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja ordering the repatriation of six academics from the former British Southern Cameroons (Ambazonia) and four other refugees who were all in Nigeria and who were abducted and illegally deported from Nigeria on January 5th 2018, on frivolous allegations of plotting to destabilize the government of La Republique du Cameroon (LRC) President Mr. Paul Biya. Two separate judgments were handed down by presiding judge, Justice Anwuli Chikere, on 1st March 2019 in connection with the matter.
In the first case - brought by a group of human rights lawyers against the National Security Advisor and Attorney General - the judge ruled that the arrest of 5th January 2018 and subsequent detention of the academics at the National Defence Intelligence Agency(DIA) was illegal and unconstitutional. In the second case - brought by the deportees - the judge ruled that the deportation on 26th January 2018 was illegal and violated the deportees' rights as guaranteed by the Nigerian Constitution.
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