The wife of jailed pro-Biafra activist Nnamdi Kanu has accused the British
\ngovernment of \u201cevading responsibility\u201d for ensuring her husband\u2019s human
\nrights are not violated.<\/p>\n
In an exclusive interview with Newsweek, Uchechi Okwu-Kanu, who gave
\nbirth to the couple\u2019s first child together in January, says that the
\nstress of her husband\u2019s detention in Nigeria\u2014which began almost five
\nmonths ago in October 2015\u2014meant that she almost miscarried.<\/p>\n
Kanu, a British-Nigerian dual national, is the leader of the Indigenous
\nPeople of Biafra (IPOB), a global campaign group calling for independence
\nfor the region formerly known as the Republic of Biafra, currently
\nsoutheast Nigeria. Biafra existed as an independent republic between 1967
\nand 1970 and was populated mainly by members of the Igbo ethnic group
\nbefore it was re-amalgamated into Nigeria.
\nKanu was arrested in Lagos by the Nigerian State Security Service (DSS) in
\nOctober 2015 on charges including criminal conspiracy and belonging to
\nunlawful society. Since then, he has twice been granted bail by Nigerian
\ncourts but remains in detention.<\/p>\n
The Nigerian government filed fresh charges against him in December 2015
\nof treasonable felony\u2014which carries a maximum life sentence in
\nNigeria\u2014accusing Kanu of attempting to overthrow Nigerian President
\nMuhammadu Buhari by broadcasting secessionist material on Radio Biafra, an
\nunderground media outlet of which Kanu is the director. His trial is due
\nto begin in the Nigerian capital Abuja on Monday.<\/p>\n
Okwu-Kanu says that her husband\u2019s human rights have been violated by the
\nNigerian government and security forces, who have kept him in detention
\ndespite the Federal High Court in Abuja ordering in December 2015 for the
\npro-Biafra activist to be granted unconditional bail.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is for the British government to get involved, to make sure that this
\nperson\u2019s human rights are being respected and they haven\u2019t done that.
\nThey\u2019ve been to see my husband but that is not where it ends,\u201d says
\nOkwu-Kanu, who married Kanu in 2009 and lives with her husband, step-son
\nand son in London.<\/p>\n
Labour MP Angela Rayner, the U.K.\u2019s Shadow Minister for Work and Pensions,
\ntells Newsweek that she has received multiple allegations of human
\nrights abuses against Kanu and other pro-Biafra protesters in Nigeria from
\nher constituents and had raised the issue with the Foreign and
\nCommonwealth Office (FCO).<\/p>\n
Amnesty International also tells Newsweek that it is investigating
\nallegations of human rights abuses of pro-Biafra protesters, including
\nkillings and arbitrary arrests, in at least four locations in Nigeria, and
\nthat it will look into claims that Kanu had been tortured in detention.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis human rights have been violated and international human rights bodies
\nshould be all over the place because he is also human,\u201d says Okwu-Kanu.
\n\u201cFrom my perspective, they [the British government] are evading some
\nresponsibility. They should be doing more, they should visit him more…
\nIt\u2019s obvious and apparent that the Nigerian government and the DSS is not
\nobeying the law.\u201d<\/p>\n
An FCO spokesperson tells Newsweek: \u201cThe U.K. takes all accusations of
\nhuman rights abuses seriously. We have provided assistance to Kanu since
\nhis arrest in October 2015, including visiting him regularly in prison and
\nattending court appearances. In each of our visits to Kanu he has told us
\nhe is in good health and that he has access to both a doctor and his
\nlawyer.\u201d The FCO spokesperson also says that the U.K. \u201cfully supports the
\nterritorial integrity of Nigeria.\u201d
\nDuring the early months of his detention, Okwu-Kanu says she was unable to
\ncontact her husband and wasn\u2019t sure if he was alive or dead. The stress
\nprompted the heavily-pregnant Okwu-Kanu to go into early contractions in
\nNovember 2015. \u201cI managed to get an ambulance and got the whole thing
\nunder control. I was kept under care, watched for two or three days before
\nI left the hospital,\u201d she says. The couple\u2019s son\u2014whom Okwu-Kanu prefers
\nnot to name for reasons of privacy\u2014was delivered safely on January 4.<\/p>\n
Okwu-Kanu says that she last heard from her husband earlier in February
\nand was reassured that he was in good health. She says that the support of
\nmembers of IPOB\u2014who view her husband as a divinely-ordained leader sent to
\nbring about the actualization of Biafra\u2014has helped her through Kanu\u2019s
\nabsence. \u201cThe fact that they\u2019re all behind me has strengthened me. Knowing
\nthat people are behind my husband, it gives me strength every day. That\u2019s
\nprobably the reason why I\u2019m still alive, the fact that he is loved by the
\npeople,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
The declaration of Biafran independence by former Nigerian military
\nofficer Odumegwu Ojukwu in 1967 sparked a three-year civil war between the
\nBiafran and Nigerian forces. More than one million people died, many due
\nto starvation after the Nigerian forces blockaded Biafra\u2019s borders.<\/p>\n
Despite having spent her entire married life in the U.K., Okwu-Kanu says
\nshe and her family would move to Biafra in an instant were it to be
\nre-established. \u201cBiafraland is a blessed land,\u201d she says. \u201cWe have
\neverything in season.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Nigerian government has declined repeated requests by Newsweek for
\ncomment on Kanu\u2019s detention. In December 2015, Buhari warned that the
\nBritish-Nigerian activist posed a flight risk and that he should face
\njustice in Nigeria.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The wife of jailed pro-Biafra activist Nnamdi Kanu has accused the British government of \u201cevading responsibility\u201d for ensuring her husband\u2019s human rights are not violated. In an exclusive interview with…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":47205,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n