Special counsel to the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Aloy Ejimakor has warned that the Federal Government of Nigeria risks diplomatic conflicts with the United Nations (UN) if it refuses to release Nnamdi Kanu unconditionally as demanded by the UN Working Group (UNWG).
Recall that the UN Human Rights Council Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, has indicted both Nigeria and Kenya governments for the arrest and extraordinary rendition, torture and continued detention of the Kanu, without due process.
The council therefore, urged Nigerian government to ensure, “immediate release Kanu unconditionally” and pay him adequate compensations for the arbitrary violation of his fundamental human rights.
Reacting to inaction of the federal government on the directive, Ejimakor, in a statement titled: ‘The UN Working Group’s decision on Nnamdi Kanu is binding on Nigeria’ said “Nigeria is subject to decisions issuing from these UN bodies.”
The statement said: “The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention is a quasi-judicial body that has a subsisting legal mandate of the United Nations to consider and adjudicate human rights petitions against member nations of the UN.
“Its rulings or decisions (diplomatically called Opinions), such as was recently issued in favor of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, are legally binding on Nigeria on myriad grounds, including the fact that the decision is based on the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights; and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, both of which Nigeria ratified several decades ago.
“Ratification is a means by which a nation makes itself subject to international laws and treaties. And by the provisions of Section 12 of the Nigerian Constitution and a plethora of decisions by the Supreme Court of Nigeria, ratification makes Nigeria subject to whatever it ratified.
