Ipob confident that Britain will intervene in Nnamdi Kanu's case as it did with Umaru Dikko

INDIGENOUS People of Biafra (Ipob) leader Nnamdi Kanu's lawyers are confident that their client will receive favourable intervention from the UK following a recent application for London to intervene in his recent arrest.

 

Last month, Mr Kanu was abducted by Nigerian security agents in Kenya and flown to Nigeria where he was facing treason charges. Given that Mr Kanu is a British citizen, his lawyers wrote to the high commission in Nigeria asking for diplomatic assistance and a London legal firm Bindmans, is also taking up the matter with the UK government.

 

Aloy Ejimakor, Mr Kanu's lawyer, revealed that his partners in the UK are engaging the British government at the highest level over the case. He added, however, that the Department of State Services (DSS) had yet to allow Mr Kanu sign documents that would give him access to consular support.

 

On Monday, Mr Kanu was to appear before the Federal High Court in Abuja but the session did not hold as the DSS failed to produce him. As a result, Mr Ejimakor said that he would be seeing Mr Kanu today but he is confident that the diplomatic pressure will yield dividends.

 

Mr Ejimakor said: “In the interim, our colleagues in the UK at the Bindmans Law Firm are ramping up their engagements with the highest levels of the British government. I expect that sooner than later, those engagements will yield the diplomatic protection to which Kanu is entitled as of right as a British national in good standing.

 

“My confidence is hinged on the countervailing measures the UK had taken in the wake of the failed extraordinary rendition of Umaru Dikko in 1984. As a citizen, Kanu is entitled to more than Dikko got as a mere resident.”

 

Ifeanyi Ejiofor, one of Mr Kanu's other lawyers, said: “Given the fact that our client, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, was not produced in court on Monday and serious safety concerns being entertained by all and sundry and more especially in keeping in line with subsisting court order that directed for specific visiting hours and days, may I respectfully put the world on notice and millions of our supporters that I will personally be visiting our client, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, on Thursday, July 29, 2021.”

 

Meanwhile, yesterday, soldiers prevented traders at the Timber and Building Materials markets in Orlu, Imo State, from opening for the day’s business. On Monday, most of the traders at the two markets had refused to open their shops in solidarity with Mr Kanu and angered by the development, the soldiers who were manning a checkpoint close to the markets barred them from opening their shops for any commercial activity yesterday.

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