Africa-Press – Nigeria. The American Veterans of Igbo Descent, AVID, an association of retired and serving United States military personnel of Igbo origin, on Thursday accused Britain of complicity in the continued detention and prosecution of leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Nnamdi Kanu.
Kanu, who is being tried by the Nigerian government on terrorism charges, hold both British and Nigerian citizenship.
Addressing journalists in Abuja on Thursday, AVID President, Dr Sylvester Onyia, accused the British government of not only abandoning Kanu – its citizen – but also supporting and encouraging his detention and prosecution.
Onyia stressed that Britain would be treated as an accomplice if the Biafra agitator dies in prison, noting that his health is failing after four years of detention since his arrest in Kenya and subsequent rendition to Nigeria in 2021.
Citing international laws, particularly Article 12 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, ICESCR, Onyia insisted that Britain has an obligation to intervene medically in Kanu’s case.
“Kanu’s health is failing. Britain must intervene medically. Failure makes it complicit in death. If Kanu dies, Britain will not be an observer. It will be an accomplice,” Onyia said.
Noting that the press briefing was convened to “speak truth to power”, Onyia said Britain has been hiding behind diplomacy while enabling injustice.
“This is an indictment not only of Nigeria’s persecution of Nnamdi Kanu but also of Britain’s deliberate complicity in violating the UN Convention Against Torture. Britain has abandoned its own citizen to torture and history will remember. Four years of torture. Four years of silence. For over four years Nnamdi Kanu has been detained after being abducted in Kenya on 27 June 2021. This was not an arrest. This was kidnapping, violating Kenya’s sovereignty. The African Charter was violated. The UN Convention Against Torture was violated. The UN Convention ruled that rendition is a violation of international laws and fundamental rights,” he added.
Faulting the silence of the British government on the matter, Onyia observed, “Britain’s silence is not golden. It is crimson with complicity.”
The AVID president further accused the British authorities of conniving with the Nigerian government in the “persecution” of the IPOB leader.
“Britain didn’t just look away, it helped script the persecution of Nnamdi Kanu,” Onyia alleged. “In October 2021 British Council officials visited Kanu, days later Nigeria amended charges, dropping reference to London broadcast. Coincidence? I don’t think so.”
“Britain supplied the lies that keep Kanu in chains,” Onyia further alleged, noting that after Kanu was discharged by the Court of Appeal, Britain declared that discharge is not acquittal.
“This is fallacy. Discharge is acquital,” he declared.
Stressing the implications of Kanu’s British citizenship, Onyia said Kanu has been abandoned because he is of Igbo descent. Accordibg to him, Britain is willing to sacrifice Kanu in order to keep Nigeria as one country.
“Britain claims he (Kanu) is also Nigerian, that its hands are tied. International law disagrees. UK law states that assistance is mandatory irrespective of dual nationality. Dual nationality is not a death sentence unless Britain makes it one. Britain’s endorsement of the travesty created injustice and double jeopardy.
“Britain would never accept this for a British citizen in Europe but for an Igbo man in Africa, in Nigeria, it is business as usual. Why? Because Kanu challenged the artificial state Britain created in 1914 and because he is an Igbo man. Britain is still trying to protect the Frankenstein it built in 1914 even if it means destroying its own citizen.”
The American Veterans of Igbo Descent accused Britain of maintaining a policy of marginalization against the Igbos, several years after the Biafra war. It urged the British government to use Nnamdi Kanu’s case to show that it had changed the “policy”.
The association listed a number of demands for immediate attention by the British authorities.
It asked Britain to publicly condemn the rendition, demand Kanu’s immediate release, launch a parliamentary inquiry into Vienna Convention breaches and end diplomatic cover for the IPOB leader’s detention and prosecution.
“A government that claims to defend human rights must start with its citizens. If Britain claims to be a nation of law it must act like it. Stop hiding behind selective morality. Silence is not neutrality, it is complicity. If Nnamdi Kanu dies in detention his blood will be on Britain’s hands. Igbos will remember. The world will remember,” Onyia added.
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