Statement from the Okwu-Kanu Family: 18 October 2026 RE: Britain’s Duty to Its Own Citizen, Detained Under a Repealed Law
 Mazi Nnamdi Kanu is a British citizen, born a Biafran. He has spent a cumulative eight years in Nigerian detention after being rendered from Kenya. He was convicted under a statute Nigeria had already repealed and remains held while his appeal sits unlisted and unheard. Britain has engaged diplomatically but has secured neither his freedom, a hearing of his appeal, nor a meaningful remedy. Historical Context:
During the Biafra–Nigeria War, the Wilson government publicly spoke of peace while freely supplying arms and ammunition to the Federal Military Government. A 12 August 1969 US intelligence estimate confirmed this, noting Britain’s reluctance to support an arms embargo due to influence concerns. In the House of Commons on 17 November 1969, Hugh Fraser stated that up to 60% of Nigeria’s battle weapons came from Britain. The family sees this historical hostility reflected in Britain’s present inaction. Five Unprecedented Violations: 1Conviction under repealed legislation without identifying any applicable extant provision of the Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition) Act 2022 that defines the offences and prescribes the penalties — contrary to s.36(12) of the Nigerian Constitution. 2Discharged and counts quashed by the Court of Appeal in October 2022, yet he remained in custody. 3Held for approximately 14 months after the discharge without a valid subsisting charge. 4Use of a civil stay of execution, obtained 14 days after the discharge, to suspend the effect of a criminal appellate decision. 5Subsequent prosecution and conviction in November 2025 on counts the Court of Appeal had already quashed, under legislation the family maintains was repealed. Judicial Concerns:
Retired Supreme Court Justice Amina Augie warned on 17 October 2026 that corruption can turn the courts into “one more market stall.” A life sentence resting on repealed law without an identified extant written provision raises fundamental questions about whether the Constitution is being obeyed. Britain’s Response:
Routine diplomatic engagement and occasional short consular welfare calls have not secured a hearing of the appeal (filed and served June 2026, still unlisted) or resolved the constitutional issues. The family questions whether the case has been referred to the Envoy for Complex Consular Detentions appointed in July 2026. Public Demands on the British Government: 1Has Britain formally demanded that Nigeria identify the precise extant written-law provisions compliant with s.36(12) under which its citizen was convicted? 2What specific steps has it taken to secure prompt listing and hearing of the appeal? 3Has the case been referred to the Envoy for Complex Consular Detentions? If not, will it be referred urgently? 4What representations have been made concerning the continued detention after the Court of Appeal discharge? 5What concrete actions and timetable will Britain now pursue to secure a hearing and lawful resolution? We demand action, not engagement. We demand answers, not consular visits. We demand that Britain prove, through concrete action, that its duty to its citizen does not disappear when that citizen is Biafran. Signed,
Prince Emmanuel Kanu
On behalf of the Okwu-Kanu Family.

DO YOU KNOW that Britain played a key role in the amphibious invasion of Calabar in October 1967. Recently declassified documents reveal that Britain covertly supplied Nigeria with the critical military hardware needed to enforce blockade of Biafra and execute the seaboard invasion. These included: * Naval Support: Britain supplied the Nigerian Navy with patrol boats and ammunition that helped secure the waters and blockade the Biafran coast, setting the stage for the Calabar assault. * Massive Arms Supply: The British government secretly shipped millions of rounds of ammunition, machine guns, and artillery to ensure the Federal troops were heavily armed. * Diplomatic and Strategic Backing: British officials openly supported Nigerian unity to protect UK oil investments (specifically Shell-BP facilities), and British Royal Air Force (RAF) officers were deployed to advise the Nigerian military on air strategies during the wider conflict. So, Biafra was not fighting only Nigeria; it was also fighting Britain, a world power.

WHO IS A BIAFRAN? A Biafran is every Nigerian who has ever felt the cold muzzle of a gun pressed against his chest simply because of the language he speaks or the name he bears. Beyond the cold muzzle of a gun, you are also a Biafran if you have ever tasted the bitter tunic of an ethnic-tinged injustice in one form or the other. In October 2001, Nigerian soldiers stormed Zaki-Biam and surrounding Tiv villages. They gathered unarmed men, women and children, ordered them to sit, and opened fire. More than two hundred never rose again. In November 1999, the same army turned the Ijaw town of Odi into a smouldering graveyard. Across Plateau State, the Jos killings of September 2001 and the Yelwa massacres of 2004 left entire Christian communities in mourning. In Zangon Kataf in 1992, hundreds of Atyap and Hausa died in days of ethnic bloodletting. Northern minorities have watched their villages burn under Boko Haram’s religious terror and under the tribal knives of armed militias who mark them as outsiders in their own land. The graves keep multiplying. Now hear the same cry in another tongue. In 1966, from May through October, Northern Nigeria became a hunting ground for Igbo and other Easterners. Across the North, soldiers and civilians dragged Easterners from their homes and markets; between eight and thirty thousand were slaughtered. Over a million fled with nothing but fear. In October 1967, at Asaba, federal troops lined up hundreds of unarmed men and boys who had come out in white, chanting “One Nigeria,” and cut them down in cold blood. The blood that soaked Zaki-Biam, Odi and the Middle Belt is the same blood that soaked Asaba and Kano. Political domination, systematic exclusion from power, and elections twisted to silence the people’s will have only deepened the wound. When a Nigerian is killed, driven from his land or robbed of his vote solely because of his ethnicity, he has already lived what it means to be Biafran. A Biafran is any Nigerian who is robbed of the compatriot spirit of a shared identity and solidarity that should be the norm amongst people from the same country or homeland. So, every Nigerian who has been turned into a stranger or a victim in his own country, or by his own country is a Biafran. And they are legion. By ALOY EJIMAKOR.