Nnamdi Kanu, the imprisoned leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), is represented by American attorney Bruce Fein. Bruce Fein has written the International Working Group about the separatist's prolonged detention twice.
The UN Commission on Human Rights oversees the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (UNCHR). The organization comprises academics and industry professionals with expertise in human rights concerns and associated regulations.
Fein petitioned the organization a few months ago over an alleged severe infringement of his client's rights. The UN panel referred to Kanu's unusual extradition from Kenya in June 2021 as an "illegal, unlawful, unconstitutional extradition" on July 20, 2022.
Additionally, it demanded the IPOB leader's immediate release and reparations from the governments of Kenya and Nigeria for how he was handled. The body also accused Nigeria and Kenya of kidnapping and relocating Kanu in the paper.
The Nigerian government has refused to release the IPOB leader despite a request from the UN Working Group.
Fein urged the group to urge the United Nations Security Council to consider suspending Nigeria from the UN for allegedly violating the "Principles of the United Nations Charter, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights" in another petition to the body SaharaReporters was able to obtain on Wednesday.
According to him, it is against international law for a country to abduct, torture, and then extrajudicially extradite a person to another country while on the move.
The statement stated, "This letter documents the Federal Government of Nigeria's continued disrespectful disobedience of this Group's 20 July 2022 Opinion regarding Nnamdi Kanu. President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria and Attorney General Abubakar Malami are mostly to blame.
"The source was asked by the opinion to give the working group an update on the government's compliance. Section 111. Following the kidnapping, torture, and extraordinary rendition, the opinion concluded that Nnamdi Kanu's confinement violated sixteen (16) international human rights agreements. Section 105. The Opinion requested that "urgent action be taken to achieve the immediate, unconditional release of Mr Kanu" by the Nigerian government. Section 107.
Since the opinion was delivered three months ago, the government has stubbornly failed to free Mr Kanu from his indefinite arbitrary incarceration in solitary confinement without access to critical and urgent medical treatment.
Furthermore, the Government disregarded the Working Group's recommendation to make the Opinion available through "all available methods as widely as feasible" in contravention of paragraph 110.
"The Government's obvious and well-known lawlessness has been exacerbated by its equal contempt for a judgment by the Court of Appeal of Nigeria, Abuja Judicial Division, Holden at Abuja, rendered on October 13, 2022. The court's ruling said that Nnamdi Kanu's exceptional extradition from Kenya by the Nigerian government was unlawful, among other factors.
In light of this, Honorable Justice Oludotun Adefope-Okojie ruled, "I hold...that [Nnamdi Kanu] is forbidden from being detained...in Nigeria for or in respect of any conduct [he] is claimed to have committed before his extraordinary rendition to Nigeria. Page 40. Any court in this country is devoid of jurisdiction to consider charges against [Mr. Kanu] as a result of [Nnamdi Kanu's] forcible abduction and extraordinary rendition from Kenya to Nigeria on June 27, 2021, violating international and domestic law.
"However, in defiance of the Court of Appeals' ruling, Attorney General Malami has refused to release Mr Kanu from custody, a crime of wrongful imprisonment committed by the Attorney General himself.
"Mr Kanu respectfully requests that the Working Group tell the Human Rights Council of Nigeria's violations of the Opinion mentioned above and its pattern of law-breaking in general, including his own, in light of the Nigerian government. Mr Kanu further requests that the Group recommend that the UN Security Council consider suspending Nigeria from the organization due to its repeated violations of the U.N. Charter's principles and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights until Nnamdi Kanu is unconditionally released following both international and Nigerian legal requirements.
"The United Nations General Assembly suspended South Africa similarly due to apartheid practices. If a country is allowed to abduct, torture, and then extraterritorially extradite a person from another country while they are travelling abroad, international peace and security will be imperilled. British national Nnamdi Kanu was kidnapped and tortured by Nigerian authorities while passing through Kenya prior to his extraordinary unlawful rendition.
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