Aloy Ejimakor, Special Counsel for the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, has accused Britain of failing to protect Kanu when he was arrested in Kenya and his subsequent trial and conviction in Nigeria.
THE WHISTLER reports that Kanu is a British citizen and had travelled to Kenya with a British passport.
Ejimakor, on a post via his X, said Britain’s handling of Kanu’s case with Nigeria is contrary to how it handles cases concerning its citizens globally. He noted that Britain has shown less concern, adding that such act “stands in stark contrast to its own record of protecting its citizens and residents subjected to extraordinary rendition”.
Ejimakor wrote, “When Mazi Kanu, a British national, was abducted in Kenya in June 2021 and extraordinarily rendered to Nigeria, Britain could have deployed the same diplomatic channels it has used before to block his trial and compel Nigeria to return him to Kenya or even the UK.”
He cited Binyam Mohamed, a UK resident rendered to Guantánamo Bay after torture in Morocco, arguing that he was brought home in 2009 after sustained Foreign Office negotiations with the US.
He added, “Bisher al-Rawi and Jamil el-Banna, British residents rendered to Guantánamo, were released and returned to the UK following years of FCO discussions with US authorities. Even the botched extraordinary rendition of Umaru Dikko by Nigeria in 1984 drew the fiercest diplomatic response from Britain, to the point that Dikko was never tried in Nigeria, and Nigeria’s relations with Britain suffered severe setbacks. More recently, Alaa Abd el-Fattah, a British-Egyptian dual national, was freed from Egyptian detention and returned to the UK after ‘intense diplomatic efforts’ by London, with the Prime Minister personally prioritising his case.”
Ejimakor claimed that in each instance, Britain treated rendition and unlawful detention of its own as a diplomatic priority, “pressing allies, tying cooperation to consular outcomes, and securing repatriation”.
He continued, “Mazi Kanu’s case demanded no less. Instead, the UK offered only minimal consular visits while Nigeria pressed ahead with a trial that both the Nigerian Court of Appeal, a Kenyan High Court, and United Nations have condemned as rooted in an unlawful rendition. Thus, diplomatic pressure of the kind applied for Mohamed, al-Rawi, el-Banna and Abd el-Fattah could have been used to insist that Nigeria halt the trial and return Mazi Kanu to Kenya or Britain. The tools existed, but the diplomatic clout was lacking. Why?” he asked.
Our correspondent reports that Kanu was convicted of treason, and currently serving life imprisonment in Sokoto Prison.
