Bruce Fein, the international lawyer and spokesperson for Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, will meet with Dr. Richard Montgomery, the new British envoy to Nigeria, to discuss Kanu’s ongoing illegal detention and how to achieve his “unconditional release” based on the opinion of the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention and numerous court decisions.
This information was made available to Vanguard in a letter that the US Attorney wrote to Montgomery.
“I would respectfully request an opportunity to meet with you in Abuja to explore avenues to secure Nigeria’s compliance with the Working Group’s order for the immediate and unconditional release of Mr. Kanu,” the letter read in part on March 27.
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While Mr. Fein wished the new British High Commissioner for Nigeria well on his new position, he cautioned him against acting like his predecessor, Catriona Laing, who, according to him, handled Kanu’s situation in a lighthearted manner despite the fact that the IPOB Leader is a British citizen.
He recalled that, despite numerous court orders and the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention’s recommendation that Kanu, a British citizen, be unconditionally released, Laing did not press the Nigerian government to comply with the orders.
“The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention issued an Opinion on July 20, 2022, determining that Mr. Kanu’s detention violated sixteen (16) international human rights covenants.
His “immediate and unconditional” release and restitution were ordered by the Working Group. More than eight months after the Working Group’s order was issued, the Nigerian government still disobeys it.
“Your ancestor stood by in lieu of standing up to the Public authority of Nigeria with its lawful commitment to deliver a UK resident without delay.
In point of fact, “she relied on the lawless Government controlled by Fulani and Biafran quislings in the Southeast to accept Orwellian propaganda about Nnamdi Kanu and Biafra.”
Fein urged the British government to follow in the footsteps of the US in seeking justice for oppressed individuals who are not even citizens of the US.
“Compare her weak defense of a wrongly accused and detained UK citizen who was found innocent by an impartial international tribunal to the ferocious efforts made by the United States to free “Hotel Rwanda” filmmaker Paul Rusesabagina, a permanent resident of Rwanda.
Mr. Rusesabagina had been found guilty by a Rwandan court of providing financial support to violent Rwandan rebels. On March 24, 2023, U.S. Secretary of State Tony Blinken and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan relentlessly pressed Rwandan President Paul Kagame for a commutation of his sentence.
Why is the United Kingdom refusing to follow the admirable example set by the United States with regard to Nnamdi Kanu? Strong nations are made of tough stuff.
The US lawyer said that because of the skewed political system that Britain left Nigeria after it gained independence, she was responsible for the ethnic tension there.
He also advised Britain to do more to restore the country’s rule of law and justice, arguing that merely returning Nigeria’s stolen artifacts does not negate the country’s citizens’ right to self-determination.
Since Nigeria’s 1960 declaration of independence from the arbitrary British colonial rule, the country has faced numerous challenges. The Unified Realm has looked to make halfway revises for partaking in the bigoted Scramble for Africa by returning stole from Benin City curios taken by ravaging English troopers.
However, in Nigeria, the British took something far more valuable than artwork. In 1914, as part of a cynical divide-and-conquer colonial strategy, the United Kingdom snatched the consent of the governed and the right to self-determination and government by herding Biafrans under a single sovereign umbrella at gunpoint. The American Upheaval of 1776 cut a general right to self-assurance by particular people groups into marble.
“Igbos, Hausa-Fulani, and Yorubas were particular people groups with inconsistent religions, accounts, customs, societies, values, and administering structures.
“No African was given a voice within Nigeria’s borders.” The brutal 1967-1970 genocide of Biafrans at the hands of the Nigerian government, assisted by the UK, was as foreseeable as the rising and setting of the sun when Britain hastily decamped in 1960.
“Nnamdi Kanu is a citizen of the United Kingdom. Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) is led by him. Its goal is to peacefully redress the rights of 70 million Biafrans to self-determination that the British stole more than a century ago.