On Thursday, Kingsley Kanu, the brother of separatist leader Nnamdi Kanu, lost a judicial battle to the British government over his ongoing arrest in Nigeria.
Kingsley Kanu filed a legal appeal of London’s purported unwillingness to officially recognise Nnamdi Kanu as a victim of extraordinary rendition and wrongful confinement.
Nnamdi Kanu, a dual British-Nigerian citizen, is the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) organization, which advocates for a separate state for the Igbo people in southeast Nigeria.
In October of last year, the Court of Appeal in Abuja decided that he was abducted, ill-treated, and “illegally moved” from Kenya to Nigeria to face treason and terrorism allegations.
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The criminal case was rejected by the judges, but Nigerian prosecutors appealed, and Kanu, who is in his mid-50s, remains in detention.
In London, Judge Jonathan Swift denied Kingsley Kanu’s request that the UK Foreign Ministry rule on whether he was exceptionally delivered and order his release. Swift dismissed the brother’s claim that the foreign secretary had “acted irrationally” by not doing so, and said the minister had the authority to choose what was in the best interests of the UK diplomatically.
The Kanu family’s attorneys have suggested that the case should prompt a rethinking of what official assistance is provided to British people detained abroad, particularly where there are allegations of human rights breaches.
Kanu, a former London estate agent who also manages the banned Radio Biafra program, was imprisoned in 2015 but escaped two years later, reappearing in the United Kingdom and Israel.
