Leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and Director of Radio Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu, has called on the British Government to lean on President Muhammadu Buhari to release him from prison.
Kanu alongside two other Biafra proponents, Benjamin Madubugwu and David Nwawuisi, are facing treason charges.
The IPOB leader wrote a letter dated March 24 to the British High Commissioner in Abuja, through his lawyer, Ifeanyi Ejiofor.
In the letter, Kanu said he’s a victim of travesty of justice and gross human rights violation, noting that the federal government has violently abused his fundamental human rights through his continued detention in spite of a court order granting him bail.
While stressing that the Nigerian government cannot give him a fair trial, Kanu said that he’s a British citizen who was wrongly arrested and put in detention.
“It is repeating the obvious to state that our client is a full British citizen, by virtue of which position he is entitled to all Rights, Privileges and Protection, guaranteed under the British Laws and conventions.”
“We are therefore constrained in the circumstance, to formally notify the British Government via this medium, of our well informed reservations, and apprehension, that our client is undergoing persecution in the charge above referred, and deliberate design by the persecutors to frustrate every effort of the Defense team aimed at giving our client a fair trial.”
“It is the position of our Law, that dual citizenship is a constitutional right of the citizens of Nigeria, clearly provided for under section 28 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended in 2011. Dual citizenship is not a crime under our Law.”
“Our reservations on the President’s comment was underpinned by the findings made in the ruling delivered on February 29, 2016, by Hon. Justice John Tsoho, wherein our client and the two other defendants were denied bail.”
“Recalled that on December 29, 2015, during the Presidential Media Chat, the President told the whole world that Nnamdi Kanu cannot be granted bail, alleging that he came into the country without a valid travelling passport.”
“This pronouncement was roundly condemned by both local and international commentators. His pronouncement was viewed as a clear usurpation of the functions and powers of the judiciary.”
“Though very regrettable and extremely unfortunate, Nnamdi Kanu was refused bail on January 29, 2016. In refusing him and other defendants bail, the court also cited the facts of his possession of dual passports as a flight risk, and as such held that he cannot be granted bail.”