Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), has requested the UK authorities to intervene in his trial and continued detention at the facility of the Nigeria’s State Security Service (SSS).
Since his re-arrest in July 2021, Mr Kanu, a British-Nigerian citizen, has been detained at the SSS facility. He is facing terrorism trial at a Federal High Court, Abuja.
In a letter dated 18 January and addressed to the House of Commons, the lower chamber of the UK parliament, the IPOB leader appealed to the lawmakers to prevail on the UK Government to intervene in his matter in Nigeria.
Aloy Ejimakor, Mr Kanu’s special counsel, who signed the letter, said he had the instruction of the IPOB leader to do so.
Mr Kanu, in the letter to the parliament, detailed how he was first arrested, his initial trial, and how he fled Nigeria after Nigerian security forces invaded his home town in Abia State, Nigeria’s South-east.
The IPOB leader, in the letter, presented some prayers which he pleaded with the parliament to consider for possible implementation.
“Urgently intervene in His Majesty’s (UK) Government, strongly urging it to promptly make demands on the Government of Nigeria to unconditional release of Mr Kanu from detention and repatriate him to the United Kingdom and to levy sanctions against the Government of Nigeria if it fails to comply within a reasonable time,” the letter read in part.
Mr Kanu argued in the letter that his extraordinary rendition to Nigeria from Kenya “inherently destroys every prospect for a fair trial in a jurisdiction that levied the rendition.”
He cited previous court rulings in the UK to support his position.
The IPOB leader said, in the alternative, the parliament should “promptly intervene with His Majesty’s Government, strongly urging it to make binding proposals to the Government of Nigeria to agree to conduct” his trial in the UK instead of Nigeria.
Credit: premiumtimesng.com
