The UN body ordered his immediate and unconditional release, as well as the payment of reparations, orders the Nigerian government has allegedly ignored for more than three years.
The international counsel and spokesperson for the jailed leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) Mazi Nnamdi Kanu has accused the United Kingdom of turning a blind eye to what it described as the illegal abduction, torture and continued imprisonment of a British citizen in Nigeria, urging Prime Minister Keir Starmer to intervene urgently.
In a letter addressed to Starmer at 10 Downing Street, and signed by Kanu’s international counsel and spokesperson, Bruce Fein, the lawyer narrated that Kanu was kidnapped in Nairobi, Kenya, in 2021, tortured, and extraordinarily renditioned to Nigeria by Nigerian security forces.
According to the letter, Kanu has since been held in solitary confinement without adequate medical care under the custody of Nigeria’s security services, in violation of multiple international human rights instruments.
Fein reminded the British Prime Minister that in July 2022, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention ruled that Nigeria had violated 16 international human rights covenants in its arrest and detention of Kanu.
The UN body ordered his immediate and unconditional release, as well as the payment of reparations, orders the Nigerian government has allegedly ignored for more than three years.
"In July 2022, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention found that Nigeria had violated sixteen (16) International Human Rights Covenants in criminally abducting and detaining Mr. Kanu. The Working Group directed his immediate and unconditional release and payment of reparations—a directive Nigeria has scorned for more than three years," he said.
The letter further explained that in November, Nigerian authorities sentenced Kanu to life imprisonment after what it described as a “show trial,” accusing the state of criminalising his advocacy for Biafran self-determination, which his lawyers insist was pursued through peaceful means.
"Last November, Nigeria sentenced Mr. Kanu to life imprisonment following a show trial worthy of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin. Mr. Kanu was convicted for defending the right of Biafrans to self-determination by peaceful means--a right enshrined in the American Declaration of Independence and the United Nations Charter but extinguished by British machine guns in 1914 in pursuing its cynical colonial policy of divide and rule in amalgamating separate peoples under one sovereign roof," it said.
The lawyer accused successive British governments of refusing to act despite repeated appeals, questioning whether Britain’s silence was driven by strategic interests, oil politics, or racial bias.
"The United Kingdom has turned a deaf ear to pleas to intervene to secure Mr. Kanu’s release as simple justice requires. He is a British citizen. He is a political prisoner by any definition,” the lawyer said.
“And Britain is partially responsible for Mr. Kanu’s persecution in denying Biafrans a self-determination vote in 1960 when Nigeria obtained its independence and in collaborating with the Nigerian government during the Biafran Civil War, 1967-1970, in a Biafran genocide featuring the industrial scale starvation of countless Biafran babies."
He noted that the UK government’s position on Kanu contrasted with how it recently welcomed the release of British-Egyptian activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah from detention in Egypt.
“Britain, however, has not lifted a finger to end or alleviate Mr. Kanu’s plight and suffering. Is this callousness explained by bribery, oil interests, or racism?” he asked.
“Compare your delight in recently welcoming a British political prisoner in Egypt, Alaa Abd el-Fattah, upon his release and return to the United Kingdom. The conspicuous double standard smacks of George Orwell’s Animal Farm: All British political prisoners are equal, but some are more equal than others," the letter said.
Fein urged Starmer to use diplomatic channels to negotiate Kanu’s release, arguing that doing so would bolster Britain’s human rights credentials and correct what he described as a grave injustice.
"You would earn human rights glitter by negotiating the release of Nnamdi Kanu with Nigerian authorities. Don’t squander the opportunity to leave footprints in the sands of time," he added.
Kanu was sentenced to life imprisonment on November 20, 2025, by the Federal High Court in Abuja after being convicted on multiple terrorism-related charges.
He was originally arrested in Kenya in 2021 and brought back to Nigeria under controversial circumstances, which rights groups and Igbo organizations have described as a violation of international law.
He remained in custody of Nigeria’s Department of State Services (DSS) for several years before the conclusion of his trial in November.