THE detained leader of the outlawed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, has lost an appeal he filed against the United Kingdom government about his arrest in Nigeria.
Last year, the IPOB leader, who claims both British and Nigerian citizenship, filed an appeal in London, requesting that the British government intervene in his case with the Nigerian government.
Kanu, who was arrested in Kenya in June 2021, has been jailed at the Department of State Service (DSS) facility since his extradition and has launched a petition seeking the UK’s assistance in the situation.
He also urged the court in March to get an order ordering the Nigerian government to take a stand and publicly denounce his confinement in his appeal filed with the Civil Division of the Court of Appeal, Royal Courts of Justice, in London.
Kanu had also sued the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office (FCDO), the UK government’s representative in London, in the litigation.
However, the court dismissed the appeal yesterday, arguing that it could not intervene with the UK government’s decision about the IPOB leader’s arrest and conditions in Nigeria.
The three-member panel stated that it could not compel the Foreign Secretary to take a hard stance on the topic while the Nigerian government’s case against Kanu was still ongoing in the Supreme Court of Nigeria.
