UK’s silence over Nnamdi Kanu’s plight deceitful, height of betrayal – Family

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Aug 6, 2025 - 13:00
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Kanu raises alarm, alleges tricks by FG to perpetually hold him down Leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, has drawn attention to what he described as serial executive and judicial fraud being perpetrated against him since his extraordinary rendition in 2021. In an open letter addressed to Nigerians yesterday, Kanu said: ‘’In a judgment entered on March 1, 2017, the Federal High Court, Abuja, ruled that the ‘IPOB is not an unlawful group’. At the time, it received widespread publicity which can be verified. ‘’This landmark ruling (made by the court before it turned unjust) emanated in a criminal proceedings that required ‘proof beyond reasonable doubt’ and in which the federal government and my humble self presented our respective cases. ‘’Alas! Instead of the federal government to go on appeal as the law mandated (if they are dissatisfied with the judgment), the former Attorney-General (Abubakar Malami) went behind closed doors with a letter signed by late Abba Kyari and got IPOB proscribed/tagged a terrorist group in an ex parte proceedings that conducted without notice to me or to the IPOB. ‘’This abominable incident was the earliest sign yet that the government and its judiciary have struck an unholy and fraudulent alliance to deny me my rights and thereby imperil the life and liberty of millions who identity with IPOB. ‘’On October 26, 2022, a Federal High Court declared my extraordinary rendition and detention as unconstitutional, stating that: ‘the manner of arrest and detention of the Applicant (Mazi Nnamdi Kanu) in Kenya, his continued detention in Abuja, his subjection to physical and mental trauma by the Respondents, the inhuman and degrading treatment meted out to the Applicant amounts to a brazen violation of the Applicant’s fundamental right to dignity of his person and threat to life under Section 34 (1)(a) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended).’ ‘’The court further ordered the federal government to apologize to me and pay me compensation. In a responsible society and well-ordered, run by a responsible government, this judgment is sufficient to have ended my lengthy detention and encourage the federal government to constructively engage me on the issue of the self-determination agitation that triggered this whole saga. ‘’Pedal back to October 13, 2022, when the Court of Appeal held that: ‘The courts must never shy away from calling the executive to order when they resort to acts of ‘executive lawlessness.’ ‘’The duty of the courts is to maintain a balance between ensuring that law and order is obeyed and the protection of the individual from oppressive actions by the executive. ‘’By the forcible abduction and extraordinary rendition of the Appellant (Mazi Nnamdi Kanu) from Kenya to this country on the 27th day of June 2021, in violation of international and state laws, the lower court or, indeed, any court in this country is divested of jurisdiction to entertain charges against the Appellant’. ‘’Despite the clarity of this judgment and its comportment with reason, the federal government refused to release me from detention while it went behind closed doors and connived with three other justices of the court of appeal who fraudulently and swiftly sat on appeal over the judgment and practically destroyed it by issuing what they termed ‘a stay of execution’. ‘’One may then ask: Is it not abominable for a court to stay a judgment the government already disobeyed? In a plethora of cases, the Supreme Court has held that anybody who disobeys a related court order cannot be given any judicial relief until such order is obeyed. ‘’This is a sound reasoning that applied to everybody but is fraudulently overlooked when it comes to my case. Fast forward to 15th December 2023 when the Supreme Court sent back my case to the Federal High Court for trial. ‘’For avoidance of doubt, that was not the only decision the Supreme Court made. It also decided that my bail should not have been revoked and it went on to state clearly that the judge exhibited significant and unacceptable bias by revoking my bail. ‘’In a sane society, one would expect that when the High court received my case from the Supreme Court and hankered down for trial, it was also duty-bound to restore my bail in line with the pronouncement of the apex court. ‘’But that did not happen. Why? Well, your guess is as good as mine and that is: the Court connived with the federal government to continue my detention in violation of Section 287 of the Nigerian Constitution. ‘’On September 24, 2024, I decided that I have had enough of taking my chances at getting justice from a judge that, in June 2021, sent me to secret police detention without fair hearing, later refused to transfer me to prison to better prepare for my trial and capped it all by refusing to restore my bail and instead ordering an accelerated trial in the face of the reality that I will never get a fair trial whilst detained at the DSS. ‘’These are the major reasons that compelled me to request recusal of the judge and having consented to it, she proceeded to make an order removing herself from my case. That order was never challenged on appeal; thus it remains extant to this day. ‘’But instead of the Chief judge of the Federal High Court to do the lawful thing by assigning my case to another judge, he connived with the federal government to eat crow and send my case to a judge that stands recused by a valid order. ‘’To conclude this open letter, let me make it clear that it should in no way be construed to mean that there are no decent judges in Nigeria that can be trusted to deliver even-handed justice in my case. That is not the issue. ‘’Instead, the issue is that my case is deliberately being shielded from judges and justices that are deemed to be committed to doing justice, even when it means that the federal government must lose. ‘’Be that as it may, if it will take the rest of my life in detention to produce me before a proper and impartial court, so be it. But let me say this for the world to know: I will not succumb to any trial conducted by any judge or court whose jurisdiction does not pass constitutional muster. Not now, not ever.’’

By Steve Oko

The family of the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPoB, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, has expressed disappointment and fury over the failure of the British Government to intervene in Kanu’s ordeals, accusing Britain of keeping criminal silence over its citizen’s plight.

Kanu’s family in a strong-worded statement signed by its Spokesman, Prince Emmanuel Kanu, expressed shock that Kanu, a British citizen, was abducted in Kenya and extraordinarily renditioned to Nigeria without any court warrant, and detained since 2021, yet the British Government had failed to intervene.

In the statement entitled: “How Britain Enabled an International Crime”, Kanu’s family slammed the British Authorities for abandoning a British citizen whose right was violated without justification.

“If Britain cannot protect its own citizen, then it should admit publicly that some British citizens are more equal than others,” the statement said.

It read in part: “In June 2021, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, a lawful British citizen and leader of a peaceful self-determination movement—IPOB, registered under UK law—was abducted in Nairobi, Kenya, subjected to extraordinary rendition without due process, and illegally transferred to Nigeria by operatives whose trail the British authorities have deliberately ignored.

“This transnational crime was carried out in clear violation of Kenyan and international law. Yet Britain said nothing. Worse still, their silence gave Nigeria the license to act with impunity.

“Why was the British High Commission in Nairobi inactive while a British citizen was drugged, tortured, and flown out in chains? Why was the UK Foreign Office complicit in turning a blind eye to this abduction that violated every known treaty obligation under international human rights and consular law?”

Kanu’s family further accused Britain of complexity in Kanu’s ordeals, alleging that claims of diplomatic talks with Nigeria, was also a hoax.

“It is now painfully clear: Britain was not merely a bystander. Britain was a co-conspirator.

“British Consular officials visited Mazi Nnamdi Kanu in DSS custody in Abuja. He asked one simple question:
“Why is the United Kingdom allowing a British citizen to be tried for broadcasts made in the UK, where both IPOB and Radio Biafra are lawful entities? Their response was both evasive and insidious: We’ll get back to you. But they never did.

“Instead, within four days of that meeting, Nigeria’s then-Attorney General Abubakar Malami quietly amended the charges against Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, removing ‘London, United Kingdom’ as the alleged location of the offences. The only logical inference is that the British authorities either advised Nigeria to do this or consented to a cover-up to evade the UK’s own jurisdictional responsibilities.”

Kanu’s family further expressed fury that Britain allowed IPOB to be proscribed despite being fully registered in the country, describing it as hypocrisy.

“Despite IPOB’s legal status in the UK and the total absence of any UK court order outlawing its activities, the British Government has continually refused to challenge the unlawful prosecution of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu in Nigeria.

“When the question was asked of the British Foreign Office—Why won’t you demand that your own citizen be returned to either the UK or Kenya, where he was abducted?—they offered the most cowardly response imaginable: We cannot interfere in a Nigerian trial.”

“This is not just false. It is a betrayal. The UK Government has, in fact, interfered constantly—by suppressing evidence, shielding Nigerian impunity, and erasing its own culpability from the chain of events that led to Mazi Nnamdi Kanu’s ongoing ordeal.

Kanu’s family further accused Britain of hatred against the Igbo race, citing British support for Nigeria against the Biafra side during the civil war as a confirmation.

“In 1968, they supplied the arms that killed Biafran children. In 2021, they supplied the silence that allowed their citizen to be kidnapped and tortured.

“What exactly did the Igbo people do to Britain to deserve this generational hatred?

“Is it our resilience, our enterprise, or our refusal to bow to colonial structures masquerading as post-colonial governments?

“Why is it that every time an Igbo leader rises to speak truth to power, Britain rushes to undermine him?

“It is time for the world to know: Britain’s hatred for the Igbo people has outlived colonialism. What they could not achieve with bombs and starvation in 1967, they now pursue through legal manipulation, judicial collusion, and geopolitical deceit.”

Kanu’s family urged Britain to change for the better, adding that its observation is in good faith.

“This statement is not made in anger. It is made in defiance. We defy the centuries of British deception in Africa. We defy the silence that enables crimes against our people.

“And we defy the notion that a British citizen can be abducted, tortured, and tried abroad without the UK lifting a finger.”

Kanu’s family said Britain should get ready to take responsibility for whatever happens to Kanu in detention since she has failed to come to his rescue.

“If anything happens to our brother, the Kanu Family will hold the United Kingdom responsible. Not because they failed to act—but because they chose to act on the side of evil. Their silence is not neutrality. It is an endorsement of tyranny.

“Publicly accept responsibility for your complicity in the illegal rendition of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu,” they said.

The family challenged Britain to take action to prove it had no hands in Kanu’s ordeals.

“Immediately demand his return to either Kenya or the United Kingdom. Cease all diplomatic and legal support that sustains this illegal trial in Nigeria. Initiate a parliamentary inquiry into the roles played by the British High Commissions in Nairobi and Abuja in this scandal,” the statement added.

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