US-based lawyer, Bruce Fein says the British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Catriona Laing, stands accused of personally sabotaging efforts to release the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.
Fein who is Kanu's lawyer alleged that Catriona Laing is conniving with the Nigerian authorities to detain Kanu in perpetuity, saying that the British envoy has "taken cynicism and hypocrisy to a new level."
He said that Liang is complicit and complacent over Kanu’s ordeals.
Fein disclosed this in a letter to the British envoy dated February 10, 2023, which was sent to DAILY POST by Kanu’s Special Counsel, Aloy Ejimakor.
The US lawyer sought to know Catriona Liang's motives as she has kept silent over Kanu's ordeals in DSS custody, considering that Kanu is a British citizen.
Fein said that he was shocked that despite the Opinion of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, the Nigerian government has declined to release the IPO leader unconditionally.
IPOB leader Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.
The letter reads: “On July 20, 2022, the United Nations Human Rights Council Working Group on Arbitrary Detention issued a unanimous opinion addressing United Kingdom citizen Nnamdi Kanu’s kidnapping, torture, extraordinary rendition, and protracted detention without trial by Nigeria acting in collusion with Kenya.
"Among other things, the Working Group Opinion called upon Nigeria “to take urgent action to ensure the immediate unconditional release of Mr. Kanu.
“Evidence has surfaced that you are personally sabotaging Mr. Kanu’s unconditional release as mandated under jus cogens norms of international law binding on all nations irrespective of
consent. You have taken cynicism and hypocrisy to a new level.
“Your Government has taken extreme umbrage at Russian President Vladimir Putin’s violation of international law in attacking Ukraine and committing war crimes.
British envoy Catriona Liang.
"But you have made the UK complicit in flouting international law like Mr. Putin by affirmatively encouraging the government of Nigeria to continue its illegal detention of Kanu.
“You and your country plunged to new depths. You go to war over the Falkland Islands thousands of miles from English shores with a tiny population of 3,500 to keep them free from Argentinian misgovernment.
"But Nnamdi Kanu, a British citizen, is abandoned to the cruel, lawless dungeon of Nigeria’s DSS.”
Earlier this year, Fein wrote to Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari, reminding him of the dire consequences of keeping Kanu in detention illegally and against UN Opinion and various court orders that have authorized his immediate and unconditional release.
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