The Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, has demanded an “immediate explanation” from the British Government for its failure to intervene in the “persecution and prolonged detention of its citizen, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, in Nigeria”.
IPOB made the demand in a statement by its spokesman, Emma Powerful, on Monday.
The pro-Biafra group noted that the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, FCDO, had acknowledged that British nationals detained abroad may require intervention when internationally accepted standards are not met or when legal proceedings are subjected to unreasonable delay.
“Yet, faced with the grave violations in Mazi Nnamdi Kanu’s case, Britain refuses to apply its own stated policy,” the statement said.
IPOB raised five questions for the British government concerning Kanu’s case, asking if the agitator’s treatment met international standards.
The statement read, “How does Mazi Nnamdi Kanu’s treatment meet internationally accepted standards of legality, due process and respect for fundamental human rights?
“How does the illegal rendition of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu from Kenya to Nigeria in June 2021 meet internationally accepted standards, particularly when the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, in Opinion No. 25/2022, called for his immediate release?
“How can his continued detention and the proceedings that followed be reconciled with the Court of Appeal’s judgment of 13 October 2022, which discharged him on specified counts?
“leverage to press Nigeria to list and hear Mazi Nnamdi Kanu’s pending appeal and all associated suits across the relevant judicial tiers without further delay.
“Britain must now choose: translate its stated commitment to protecting its citizens into meaningful action, or expose that commitment as empty rhetoric when a British citizen of Biafran descent needs that protection most,” the statement said.
