Ejimakor petitions UK parliament, seeks govt’s intervention to free Kanu
MR Ejimakor, Special Counsel to the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra ( IPOB), Mazi Nnamdi Kanu has petitioned the British House of Lords over the continued detention of his client, praying UK government to intervene on the matter.
In the petition dated January 18, 2024, Ejimakor, who narrated the circumstances under which his client was renditioned illegally from Kenya on June 19, 2021, urged the House of Lords to promptly make demands on the Nigerian government to unconditionally release Kanu from detention and repatriate him to Britain.
He also wants the UK government to place sanctions on the Federal Government ( FG) if it fails to comply within a reasonable time.
“It is pertinent to stress the point that extraordinary rendition inherently destroys every prospect for a fair trial in the jurisdiction that levied the rendition. And UK courts have held in a plethora of cases that extraordinary rendition creates a barrier to the trial of a suspect.
“This was precisely the reason the United Kingdom had, in 1984, denied Nigeria’s formal application to extradite Umaru Dikko after his aborted extraordinary rendition from the UK.
“In our humble view, Mr. Kanu’s is no different, except that his case bears more equity because of his British nationality, as compared to Mr. Dikko who was not a British citizen,” he argued.
Also, Ejimakor, who complained about the deteriorating health of his client, explained that extraordinary rendition is by itself a form of torture that should shock the conscience of the Parliament, especially when considered together with the actual physical torture allegedly levied on his client by agents of the FG in Kenya and the solitary confinement to which Mr. Kanu has been subjected to in Nigeria, since his arrest.
According to him, torturing a British citizen overseas triggers the universal criminal jurisdiction of British courts.
The lawyer, however, prayed the Parliament to, in the alternative, cause the British government to make binding proposals to Nigeria, with a view to conducting Kanu’s trial in the UK.
His words: “In addition to the fact that all the charges leveled against him are alleged to have been committed from British soil, there are other legal reasons Mr. Kanu should be tried in the UK rather than Nigeria.”
These reasons, he said, include the fact that he is a dual citizen of Nigeria and the UK.
As a British citizen, he argued, Kanu has the right to seek legal protections from the UK government, which includes demanding that the UK be the venue for his trial.