Counsel decries non-compliance with IPOB leader’s release

The U.S based international counsel and spokesman for Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Bruce Fein, has faulted the British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Honourable Catriona Laing, for delaying reaction or action on the directive issued to the Federal Government by the United Nations (UN) Working Group on Arbitrary Detention to immediately and unconditionally release Kanu and pay him due compensation.

This was contained in a letter by Fein, which was sent to The Guardian, yesterday, by Kanu’s special counsel, Aloy Ejimakor.

The letter to the High Commissioner dated August 7, is titled: “Re:  Immediate, unconditional release of U.K. citizen, Nnamdi Kanu, UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention Opinion No. 25/2022”.

It states: “On July 20, 2022, the United Nations Human Rights Council Working Group on Arbitrary Detention issued a unanimous opinion addressing United Kingdom citizen Nnamdi Kanu’s kidnapping, torture, extraordinary rendition, and protracted detention without trial by Nigeria acting in collusion with Kenya.”

Among other things, the Working Group Opinion, he said, called upon Nigeria “to take urgent action to ensure the immediate unconditional release of Mr. Kanu.”

Copy of the letter, stated that the UN Opinion cataloged the serial human rights violations of Nigeria and Kenya regarding Mr. Kanu.

“The deprivation of liberty…in contravention of articles 2, 3, 7, 8, 9,10, 11, and 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and articles 2, 9, 13, 14, 16, 19, and 26 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights including that the villainous maltreatment of Kanu by Nigeria and Kenya prompted the Working Group to refer his case to Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment”.

Fein told the High Commissioner that despite that Kanu is a British citizen who has suffered far more than Captain Jenkins at the hands of Nigeria and Kenya, the High Commissioner was yet to do anything to secure Kanu’s immediate and unconditional release as mandated by international law.

According to Fein, the High Commissioner cannot claim ignorance that “once upon a time, the United Kingdom fiercely defended its citizens against lawlessness by foreign nations. It fought the War of Jenkins Ear in 1739 with Spain over an amputated ear of a British Captain by Spanish coast guards in the West Indies.”

He said that a copy of the Working Group Opinion was before the High Commissioner.

Continuing, Fein stated:  “Kanu is innocent. He has not been convicted of any crime. Indeed, he is a victim of multiple crimes perpetrated by Nigerian and Kenyan authorities. Yet you and your superiors continue to permit Mr. Kanu to suffer in a Nigerian dungeon in flagrant violation of international law.”