Stephen Ukandu, Umuahia
Mr Bruce Fein, United States lawyer and Spokesman for the detained Leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, has accused the British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Catriona Laing, of colluding with the Nigerian authorities and personally sabotaging efforts to free Kanu from captivity.
The US Attorney in a letter to the British envoy sought to know why she and her country would keep mute over the continued illegal detention of Kanu, a British citizen, but champion the international offensive against the Russian President, Vladimir Putin for attacking Ukraine.
Fein expressed his disappointment with the British High Commissioner that close to a year after the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, gave its Opinion, asking Nigeria to unconditionally release Kanu, Laing had done nothing to facilitate the release of the IPOB Leader.
The letter entitled: “RE: Sabotage of Immediate, Unconditional Release of U.K. citizen Nnamdi Kanu pursuant U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention Opinion No. 25/2022, was dated February 10, 2023.
A copy of the letter made available to Ikengaonline read: “Dear High Commissioner:
On July 20, 2022, the United Nations Human Rights Council Working Group on Arbitrary Detention issued a unanimous opinion addressing United Kingdom citizen Nnamdi Kanu’s kidnapping, torture, extraordinary rendition, and protracted detention without trial by Nigeria acting in collusion with Kenya. Among other things, the Working Group Opinion called upon Nigeria “to take urgent action to ensure the immediate unconditional release of Mr. Kanu.
“Paragraph 107. The Opinion cataloged the serial human rights violations of Nigeria and Kenya regarding Mr. Kanu: “The deprivation of liberty…in 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….” Paragraph 105.
“Evidence has surfaced that you personally are sabotaging Mr. Kanu’s unconditional release as mandated under jus cogens norms of international law binding on all nations irrespective of consent. You have taken cynicism and hypocrisy to a new level.
“Your Government has taken extreme umbrage at Russian President Vladimir Putin’s violation of international law in attacking Ukraine and committing war crimes. But you have made the UK complicit in flouting international law like Mr. Putin by affirmatively encouraging the Government of Nigeria to continue its illegal detention of Nnamdi Kanu.”
Fein wondered what would have been the reason for the strange attitude of the British Government and the envoy towards Kanu’s matter.
“What is your ulterior motive? Oil and gas for the United Kingdom? Lucrative UK business arrangements?
“You and your country plunged to new depths. You go to war over the Falkland Islands thousands of miles from English shores with a tiny population of 3,500 to keep them free from Argentinian misgovernment. But Nnamdi Kanu, a British citizen, is abandoned to the cruel, lawless dungeon of Nigeria’s DSS.
“Have you no sense of decency? Have you a heart of stone unmoved by monumental injustice?”
