Posted by As a result of his continued detention in Nigeria, Kingsley Kanu, the brother of the imprisoned Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) leader Nnamdi Kanu, lost a legal battle against the British government on Thursday in a London court.
Kingsley filed a judicial review against the British Foreign Office for allegedly refusing to acknowledge that Nnamdi Kanu, who has dual British and Nigerian citizenship, was the victim of an extraordinary rendition from Kenya to Nigeria in June 2021.
Kingsley’s attorneys, according to Reuters, contended that the Foreign Office should come to a decision regarding whether his brother was a victim of extraordinary rendition in order to determine the best course of action to support Kanu.
The case was dismissed by the court’s designated judge, Jonathan Swift, in a written decision on Thursday. He stated that the government should be responsible for the Foreign Office’s decision to not publicly or privately express a strong opinion about Kanu’s treatment.
However, the judge went on to say that the British government’s strategy will now also be influenced by a decision made by the Nigerian Court of Appeal on October 13 that found Kanu had been forcibly kidnapped and returned to Nigeria.