The detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, has urgently petitioned the British House of Lords, seeking intervention in his detention and the case with the federal government.
Kanu, a dual citizen of Nigeria and the UK, filed the petition through his special counsel, Barrister Aloy Ejimakor, stressing his advocacy for self-determination for the people of Biafra Nation in Nigeria.
In the petition dated January 18, 2024, Kanu noted IPOB’s registration as a legal entity in the UK, operating openly as a nonviolent group despite being proscribed as a terrorist organisation in Nigeria.
Kanu also recounted his arrest in October 2015 and subsequent charges solely based on pro-Biafra broadcasts.
The petition also detailed the military attack on Kanu’s home in 2017 and his involuntary exile.
The petition read, “The security forces used live bullets and other lethal munitions and several people including Mr. Kanu, his parents (now late), his siblings, children, women, the elderly, and numerous visitors were at the said home with Mr. Kanu during the attacks.
“At the end of the attacks, Mr. Kanu’s home was badly damaged, dozens of people were killed, many were wounded and maimed, and the security forces captured several people alive and disappeared them to unknown locations to this day.
“In January 2022, a High court in Nigeria declared the military attacks at Mr. Kanu’s residence as unconstitutional and a breach of his fundamental rights and awarded him substantial monetary damages.
“In March 2018, the African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights (ACHPR) issued an interim Decision, holding that the military attacks on Mr. Kanu (and the contemporaneous proscription of IPOB) violated the African Charter; and accordingly, the ACHPR wrote the former President of Nigeria to remedy the situation but the GON never implemented the Provisional Measures to this day.”
According to the petition, as a direct consequence of the said military invasion and the nationwide manhunt for him, Mr. Kanu was compelled to flee Nigeria in search of refuge and to save his life.
However, in June 2021, Kanu was apprehended in Kenya in what he describes as an illegal “extraordinary rendition” orchestrated by Nigerian security forces. He was then extradited to Nigeria, despite concerns raised by the Kenyan High Court and international human rights organisations.
It added, “In the course of his involuntary exile, Mr. Kanu, on 12th May 2021, entered the Republic of Kenya as a British subject and was legally admitted on his British passport. After his admission, he settled-in at a temporary location in Nairobi, Kenya.
“After failing in the objective of killing Mr. Kanu during the September 2017 military operation against him, and being aware that he had taken refuge in Kenya, security forces of the GON hotly pursued Mr. Kanu to Kenya and laid in wait and ambushed him.
“On June 19, 2021, Mr. Kanu drove himself to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, Nairobi, Kenya on a personal errand.
“As soon as he pulled to a stop at the parking lot and alighted from his vehicle, several armed security agents working for GON violently accosted and abducted him, handcuffed him, blindfolded him, bundled him in a vehicle and sped away.
“The abductors took him to a nondescript private house (not a police station or other official location) somewhere in Nairobi, Kenya and chained him to the floor.
“Mr. Kanu was not shown any Kenyan arrest warrant or extradition warrant, nor was he informed of the existence of any such warrant. His abductors took turns beating him and torturing him, taunting him and verbally degraded him.
“He remained chained to the floor for eight days, was not allowed to bathe, was fed bland bread once a day and given non-sanitary water to drink.
“He was not taken before a Kenyan Court or even a Kenyan police station or other official law enforcement facility or even allowed a phone call.”
The petition said that on his return to Nigeria, Kanu was held incommunicado for several days before being arraigned before a Federal High Court in Abuja.
He was denied access to his legal counsel and detained in a facility operated by the State Security Services, despite a Nigerian law mandating prison facilities for pretrial detainees.
According to the petition, Kanu was on June 29, 2021, secretly arraigned and without benefit of his counsel of record before a Federal High Court in Abuja.
The petition said the “court wrongfully ordered him detained with Secret Police – State Security Services), instead of a prison facility, which is a clear violation of the provisions of the Nigeria’s Prisons Act, the Administration of Criminal Justice Act and the provisions of the Nigerian Constitution on right to Counsel.”
The petition noted that in October 2023, a High Court in Nigeria declared as unconstitutional the executive actions of the Nigerian government in the proscription of IPOB and its declaration as a terrorist group.
It said, “The Court awarded significant damages against the GON and ordered it to apologise to Mr. Kanu.
“On 13th October, 2022, Nigeria’s Court of Appeal delivered a judgement, ruling that the mode of transferring Mr. Kanu from Kenya to Nigeria amounted to extraordinary rendition. Accordingly, the Court discharged Mr. Kanu from all criminal charges pending against him.
“On 15th December 2023, the Nigerian Supreme Court remitted Mr. Kanu’s case back to the originating High Court to consider whether the charges will stand against him. However, the apex Court strongly condemned both the said military attacks against Mr. Kanu and his extraordinary rendition.
“Till date, however, the case file is yet to be transmitted to the High Court and the said judgement of remittal is yet to be enrolled and certified, thus leading to a situation where Mr. Kanu remains in limbo without any clear prospects of ever being brought to trial since this saga begin almost nine years ago in 2015.”
The petition presented concerns about Kanu’s health, citing life-threatening conditions, and called on the House of Lords to intervene with the UK government, urging it to demand Kanu’s unconditional release from detention and repatriate him to the United Kingdom.
The petition suggested that the UK should consider conducting Kanu’s trial in the UK due to alleged human rights concerns, diplomatic considerations, security and safety issues, and to ensure a fair trial free from political interference.
The petition expressed Kanu’s belief that he has not received the full legal and diplomatic protections entitled to him as a British subject.
The petition pointed out that “Mr. Kanu is gravely ill with three life-threatening conditions, namely a serious heart condition, hypertension and low potassium levels”.
It said, “All of these serious conditions demand specialist medical care and interventions that are not available at the facility where he is being detained or even in Nigeria as a whole. And the GON is fully aware of this.
“In view of the foregoing, we hereby most respectfully present the following Prayers for the consideration of the House of Lords.
“Urgently intervene with His Majesty’s Government, strongly urging it to promptly make demands on the GON to unconditionally release Mr. Kanu from detention and repatriate him to the United Kingdom; and to levy sanctions against the GON if it fails to comply within a reasonable time.
“It is pertinent to stress the point that extraordinary rendition inherently destroys every prospect for a fair trial in the jurisdiction that levied the rendition. And UK courts have held in a plethora of cases that extraordinary rendition creates a barrier to the trial of a suspect.
“This was precisely the reason the United Kingdom had, in 1984, denied Nigeria’s formal application to extradite Umaru Dikko after his aborted extraordinary rendition from the UK.
“In our humble view, Mr. Kanu’s is no different, except that his case bears more equity because of his British nationality, as compared to Mr. Dikko who was not a British citizen.
“Additionally, extraordinary rendition is – by itself – a form of torture that should shock the conscience of the Parliament, especially when considered together with the actual physical torture levied on Mr. Kanu by agents of the GON in Kenya and the solitary confinement to which Mr. Kanu has been subjected to in Nigeria since June 2021.
“It is settled that torturing a British citizen overseas triggers the universal criminal jurisdiction of British courts.
“In alternative to above, Your Lordships are prayed to promptly intervene with His Majesty’s Government, strongly urging it to make binding proposals to the GON to agree to conduct Mr. Kanu’s trial in the United Kingdom.
“In addition to the fact that all the charges levelled against Mr. Kanu by the GON are alleged to have been committed by him from British soil, there are other legal reasons why Mr. Kanu should be tried in the UK rather than Nigeria.”
