• IPOB leader’s health worsens in DSS facility, says lawyer
From Magnus Eze, Enugu
Failure of the United Kingdom Government to assist Nnamdi Kanu, a British national forcefully brought into Nigeria since June 2021, has attracted knocks from the country’s Foreign Affairs Committee. The Committee report came as the health condition of the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) deteriorated in the facility of the Department of State Services in Abuja.
The Foreign Affairs Committee (FAC) just published a report, concluding that the UK government was failing to prevent “Abductor states from weaponising the citizenship of British nationals for geopolitical ends.”
The report, which was obtained by Saturday Sun, drew on evidence provided by the Kanu family in relation to Kanu, who was allegedly abducted and tortured in Kenya by the Nigerian security forces and subjected to extraordinary rendition to Nigeria in June 2021, where he has remained in detention ever since.
Kanu’s special counsel, Alloy Ejimakor, said the publication of the report was timely, as his client’s family was about to appeal against the UK High Court judgment that the FCDO could lawfully evade reaching any conclusion on whether Mr Kanu had been subject to extraordinary rendition.
Part of the recommendations said: “Where – as in Mr Kanu’s case – there is a UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention Opinion that a detention of a UK citizen is illegal, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) should assume that the case will not be judged in line with international standards and should respond accordingly. The government should as a matter of practice promote public acceptance of the Opinion (‘Conclusions and recommendations’, paragraph 4). The report notes that in Mr Kanu’s case the UK government has not issued any comment on the UNWGAD’s unequivocal finding that Mr Kanu has been subject to arbitrary detention (footnote 31).
“Within the next 12 months, the government should formalise and publish guidance outlining criteria for determining whether the detention of a UK national by a foreign state is considered arbitrary. A review should then be carried out of all UK nationals detained overseas according to the established criteria. The conclusions on the nature of the detention should be used to classify the case internally, in discussions with the family and, where appropriate, publicly (‘Conclusions and recommendations’, paragraph 2). The Kanu family supports this recommendation as it has emerged from Mr Kanu’s judicial review challenge that the UK government does not have any specific policy to deal with British nationals subject to extraordinary rendition abroad.
The report noted Mr Kanu’s family’s concerns that, although they have had regular communication with the FCDO, “this might not have been forthcoming had their legal representation not requested it” (paragraph 75).”
The committee further recommended that the UK government should, within the next 12 months, undertake appropriate consultations to establish the position of Director for Arbitrary and Complex Detentions, with a mandate, including “coordinating the response to certain cases, providing a point of contact for families, convening a cross-government response, and coordinating the UK’s response to the multilateral efforts to address state hostage taking and arbitrary detention with a relentless focus on them. The post holder should have a direct line to the Prime Minister.”
Kanu’s younger brother, Kingsley, who spoke on behalf of the family, said the family had been pressing the UK government to take more robust action to assist his brother.
“The government has not been willing to even reach a conclusion, privately or publicly, on whether Nnamdi has been subjected to extraordinary rendition and has constantly told us that the approach it is taking is the most appropriate one. It is satisfying to us that the FAC has called into question the FCDO’s blanket approach of ‘quiet diplomacy’ and has been critical of the level of protection the FCDO currently offers to British nationals detained abroad. We hope that the FCDO will take the recommendations into consideration and will reconsider its approach to my brother’s case in light of them,” Kingsley enthused.
Kanu’s family is represented by John Halford and Shirin Marker of Bindmans LLP, together with Charlotte Kilroy QC of Blackstone Chambers and Tatyana Eatwell of Doughty Street Chambers.
Ejimakor said the development had brought more force to the overall efforts geared towards freeing Kanu from detention and forestalling any further attempts to prosecute him.
Meanwhile, a member of the IPOB leader’s legal team, Maxwell Opara, yesterday, disclosed that Kanu’s health condition was cause for concern.
Opara wrote: “I just came out from DSS Headquarters Abuja where I went to visit Mazi Nnamdi Kanu (MNK) with his sister. When they brought MNK out from the solitary confinement facility where they kept him to the waiting room where I was waiting to see him, he was looking very tired and I asked to know how he was feeling. He complained of weakness of the body and chest pain and always felt like vomiting. While we were still discussing, he cut off our discussion and rushed into the toilet and started vomiting in my presence. I rushed in and held him for a while.
Ejimakor disclosed that Kanu’s legal team had a pending application for Mandamus, seeking an order compelling the government to yield, by permitting their client an independent medical examination.