BIafra: UK ‘has abandoned’ Nnamdi Kanu, The British-Nigerian activist held in ‘filthy, windowless cell’--The Telegraph Newspaper
The Government has abandoned a British-Nigerian political
activist who campaigned for independence for his homeland after he was seized
and tortured by security forces, his supporters say.
Nnamdi Kanu spent years running a radio station from his
home in south London, but has been held in solitary confinement for two years
by Nigerian security services who seized the activist in Kenya and illegally
spirited him back to the country.
His family say he is being held in a small, windowless cell
despite a Nigerian appeal court dropping all charges against him and ruling
that his arrest and extradition were unlawful. The United Nations has also
called for his immediate release.
His lawyers accuse the UK Government of doing too little to
push for his release and failing to condemn his mistreatment, even though he
was travelling on a UK passport when seized. They also fear his life may be in
danger in prison.
“This is a serious matter which we would have expected the
British Government to be very vocal and reactive about,” Ifeanyi Ejiofor, one
of Mr Kanu’s legal team, told The Telegraph.
“The UK Government has not done much. The Foreign Secretary
has so far failed to reach any view.”
Mr Kanu is leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra group,
and for years ran Radio Biafra from his flat in Peckham, calling for
independence for the region in south-eastern Nigeria.
The region briefly seceded in the late 1960s, prompting
civil war and the deaths of at least a million people, before the breakaway was
blockaded and starved into surrender.
Although popular among many Biafrans for raising calls for a
referendum on independence, Mr Kanu is a divisive figure, and some in the
Nigerian government see him as a potentially dangerous rabble rouser who raises
the spectre of renewed civil strife. His group is proscribed as a terrorist
outfit in Nigeria.
Mr Kanu had previously spent two years in prison and had
fled Nigeria while on bail.
Looking heavily weighed down when he appear in court for the
first time, Kanu, who was brought to court for the continuation of trial
shortly after he was "extraordinary rendition" to Nigeria from Kenya
by Nigeria security, soughted the permission of Justice Binta Nyako the
presiding judge to address the court and present his side of the story.
Upon the permission, Kanu told the court in the presence of
heavily armed security operatives that his house was unlawfully invaded by
security men with his life seriously threatened.
The IPOB leader further said he would have been killed along
with others on the day of the unlawful invasion of his home if not for the
wisdom he applied to escape with his life.
In June 2021, he was in Nairobi when his family and supporters
say he was abducted and tortured by the Nigerian and Kenyan authorities.
After being beaten for several days, he was put on a small
plane back to Nigeria and charged with offences including terrorism and
treason.
An appeal court dropped the charges and called for his
discharge last year, saying he had been subject to extraordinary rendition
without proper extradition. But he remains in security service custody ahead of
an appeal before the supreme court in September.
His family earlier this year described the Foreign Office’s
handling of the case as “a catalogue of disappointing failings which has left
the Nigerian government’s position largely unaltered, and Mr Kanu’s wife and
children, all British citizens, unsupported by their Government.”
The supreme court is widely expected to side with Mr Kanu,
but his legal team warn that his health has deteriorated and allege that he is
in danger while in custody.
‘Anything could happen’
Mr Kanu’s family told MPs earlier this year that he was
being held in a filthy, windowless six foot by six foot cell.
He has not been allowed to change his clothes since he was
captured and is given one meal of soup and bread each day.
He has a heart condition and needs treatment for an ear
injury his lawyers say he suffered under torture. Nigerian authorities are
refusing to let Mr Kanu’s own doctors treat him and his lawyers claim that his
life may be at risk if he is forced to undergo treatment by military doctors.
Mr Ejiofor said: “I am 100 per cent sure that if he were
made to undergo medical procedures under custody that anything could happen,
given the history of how he was abducted, how he underwent extraordinary
rendition, how he was tortured.”
A Foreign Office spokesman said: “We continue to offer
consular support to Mr Kanu and remain in regular contact with his family and
legal representatives, and the Nigerian and Kenyan authorities.”
Edited Version
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