…Says Russian invasion of Ukraine less than on-going genocide against Biafra<\/p>\n
American legal luminary, Bruce Fein, Special Counsel to the detained Leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, has written a strong-worded letter to the British High Commissioner to Nigeria,\u00a0 Catriona Laing, demanding enforcement of the United Nations, UN Human Rights Council Working Group on Arbitrary Commission opinion on the IPOB leader..<\/p>\n
The UN Working Group had on its Opinion, requested Nigeria to ensure Kanu\u2019s\u00a0 \u201cimmediate and unconditional release\u201d.<\/p>\n
The document indicted both Nigeria and Kenya for Kanu\u2019s abduction, rendition, torture and continued detention, and recommended payment of adequate compensations to him.<\/p>\n
UN Working Group took the decision on April 8 but made its recommendations public on July 20 in an unedited advance copy sighted by Vanguard in Abia.<\/p>\n
According to the document, Nigeria has six months to comply with the UN Opinion or the world body would be forced to take action.<\/p>\n
Ever since the document was made public, Nigeria is yet to formally comment on the matter despite growing clamour for the country to comply.<\/p>\n
Piqued by Nigeria\u2019s non-compliance and the Britain\u2019s inaction as Kanu holds British citizenship, Fein decided to write the UK envoy to Nigeria.<\/p>\n
A copy of Fein\u2019s letter made available to Vanguard in Abia by Kanu\u2019s other Special Counsel, Mr Aloy Ejimakor, queried the continued silence of Britain over the ordeals of her citizen when there is a document she could leverage in to effect his freedom.<\/p>\n
The letter wondered why Britain which in the past, fiercely defended its citizens against lawlessness by foreign nations, is complacent over Kanu\u2019s matter.<\/p>\n
Below is a full text of the letter entitled: \u201cRE:\u00a0 Immediate, Unconditional Release of U.K. citizen Nnamdi Kanu, U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention Opinion No. 25\/2022<\/p>\n
\u201cDear High Commissioner:<\/p>\n
\u201cOn\u00a0 July 20, 2022, the United Nations Human Rights Council Working Group on Arbitrary Detention issued a unanimous opinion addressing United Kingdom citizen Nnamdi Kanu\u2019s kidnapping, torture, extraordinary rendition, and protracted detention without trial by Nigeria acting in collusion with Kenya.<\/p>\n
\u201cAmong other things, the Working Group Opinion called upon Nigeria \u201cto take urgent action to ensure the immediate unconditional release of Mr. Kanu.\u201d\u00a0 (Paragraph 107)<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Opinion cataloged the serial human rights violations of Nigeria and Kenya regarding Mr. Kanu: \u201cThe deprivation of liberty\u2026in contravention of articles 2, 3, 7, 8, 9,10, 11, and 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and articles 2, 9, 13, 14, 16, 19, and 26 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights\u2026.\u201d (Paragraph 105).<\/p>\n
\u201cThe villainous maltreatment of Nnamdi Kanu by Nigeria and Kenya prompted the Working Group to refer his case to Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment.\u00a0 (Paragraph 109).<\/p>\n
\u201cMore than one month has elapsed since the unambiguous Working Group Opinion.\u00a0 Nigeria has sneered at the Opinion as nothing but a scrap of paper like Belgium neutrality scorned by Germany in World War I to which Britian responded with war.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce upon a time, the United Kingdom fiercely defended its citizens against lawlessness by foreign nations. It fought the War of Jenkins Ear in 1739 with Spain over an amputated ear of a British Captain by Spanish coast guards in the West Indies.<\/p>\n
\u201cNnamdi Kanu is a British citizen.\u00a0 He has suffered far more than Captain Jenkins at the hands of Nigeria and Kenya as corroborated and held by the U.N. Working Group.\u00a0 Yet you have done nothing to secure Mr. Kanu\u2019s immediate and unconditional release as mandated by international law.\u00a0 Indeed, you have idled like Nero fiddling while Rome burned. You cannot claim ignorance.\u00a0 A copy of the crystal-clear Working Group Opinion is before you.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou are embarrassing the United Kingdom and the cause of human rights.\u00a0 Think of the stupendous contrast.\u00a0 The United States is moving heaven and earth to obtain the release of a United States basketball player from Russia after she pled guilty to a drug violation.\u00a0 It has offered to trade a notorious imprisoned arms trafficker Viktor Bout in exchange for Britney Griner\u2019s freedom.<\/p>\n
\u201cNnamdi Kanu, unlike Mr. Griner, is innocent.\u00a0 He has not been convicted of any crime.\u00a0 Indeed, he is a victim of multiple crimes perpetrated by Nigerian and Kenyan authorities.\u00a0 Yet you and your superiors continue to permit Mr. Kanu to suffer in a Nigerian dungeon in flagrant violation of international law.<\/p>\n
\u201cHave you no sense of decency?\u00a0 Has Great Britain sold its soul for a mess of pottage?\u00a0 Is the United Kingdom the land of Magna Carta and the immortal Winston Churchill with his dauntless denunciations of Nazi Germany?<\/p>\n
\u201cRussia\u2019s attack on Ukraine is a tea party compared with Nigeria\u2019s ongoing genocide of Biafrans\u2014the Holocaust sans the gas chambers.\u00a0 It is not acceptable under law or God that Great Britain would declaim against the former and ignore the latter. Your silence is making Great Britain\u2019s presidency of the United Nations Security Council a joke.<\/p>\n
\u201cI regret the resort to language outside the customary euphemisms of diplomacy.\u00a0 But justice for Nnamdi Kanu and 70-80 million Biafrans is too important to be left to ambiguous clues or semaphore.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would respectfully request that you inform me promptly of the steps you have taken or contemplate taking to secure Nigeria\u2019s compliance with the Working Group Opinion calling for Nnamdi Kanu\u2019s immediate, unconditional release and reparations. Nothing would gratify me more than for you to earn an honored chapter in the annals of human rights and international law.\u201d<\/p>\n
…Says Russian invasion of Ukraine less than on-going genocide against Biafra American legal luminary, Bruce Fein, Special Counsel to the detained Leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Mazi…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":97918,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-97916","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n