Nnamdi Kanu’s brother loses case challenging UK’s ‘silence’ on IPOB leader’s detention

A British high court has dismissed a case filed by Kingsley Kanu, brother of Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), challenging the UK ministers’ handling of the separatist leader’s case.

UK Guardian reports that Kingsley had claimed that three foreign secretaries – Liz Truss, Dominic Raab, and James Cleverly – had acted unlawfully by failing to reach a view on whether his brother had been subjected to extraordinary rendition.

He claimed that efforts to gain the release of the IPOB leader, who has been in detention since June 2021, in “appalling conditions, and without access to medical treatment for a heart disease”, had been “frustrated by the UK’s refusal to take a stand”, despite rulings by the UN and a Nigerian court.

Delivering judgment in the case on Thursday, Jonathan Swift, presiding judge, held that the minister had the right to determine what was in the UK’s diplomatic interests.

 “While the secretary of state has declined the claimant’s request to state an ‘unequivocal view’ either privately or publicly, this does no more than reflect the secretary of state’s opinion on how best to conduct his affairs with the Nigerian authorities, to secure the greatest chance of providing practical assistance to Mr Kanu,” the judge held.

However, Swift added that the British government’s approach will also now be informed by a ruling given by Nigeria’s court of appeal on October 13, which found that Kanu had been unlawfully abducted and rendered to Nigeria.