Scores of protesters on Thursday, October 5, stormed the British High Commission in Abuja demanding that the United Kingdom government produce the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu.
The protesters led Venantius Torkuma, the executive director of Advocates of Social Justice for All (ASJA) said, Kanu must be brought back to Nigeria to face his trial.
Torkuma and his group called on the British government to release the leader of the IPOB immediately to Nigerian authorities.
The group also vowed to occupy the High Commission until Kanu is produced.
Torkuma said: “We had clearly stated that we shall occupy this High Commission if the UK fails to produce Kanu.”
“Our stance was informed by the knowledge that the UK was instrumental to the escape of the terrorist leader only for it to turn around to ask Nigerian authorities for clarification on the state and status of Kanu.
“Because Nnamdi Kanu holds dual citizenship of Nigeria and the United Kingdom, we do not refute the High Commission’s right to inquire about its “citizen” so to speak.
“But we do have issues with what the High Commission did in the period preceding when Kanu’s IPOB was declared a terrorist organization and what it did afterwards. It smacks of the worst case of double standard possible,” Torkuma said.
Torkuma also accused the UK government of keeping mute when her citizen, Kanu, was peddling hatred across Nigeria.
He said: “It did not see this time as a period to negotiate for him to return to London as its citizen to go peddle his terrorism there. But it had the resources to provide emergency travel documents for the IPOB leader the moment a Nigerian Federal High Court ruled that he leads a terrorist organization.”
